excuse

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (2)  · 
“
So we plead in our excuse, but the excuse is a false one and we know it.

View all »
Definitions (38)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (14)

  1. transitive verb To explain (a fault or an offense) in the hope of being forgiven or understood: He arrived late and excused his tardiness in a flimsy manner.
  2. transitive verb To apologize for (oneself) for an act that could cause offense: She excused herself for being late.
  3. transitive verb To grant pardon to; forgive: We quickly excused the latecomer.
11 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (9)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • All of us at some time have made excuses for our behavior, and the reason for our excuse is always justified. —  Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
  • This time the excuse is a survey that does show a small decline in Christian self-identification, but that this decline has pretty much stopped. —  Crosswalk.com - Home
  • Well the excuse was a couple of birthdays to celebrate - like David Conover's and Christie Milz's. —  Sierra Sun - Top Stories
  • For the last eight years, the excuse was always "Well, the Republicans are running the government, so we need to cover them." —  Think Progress
  • This time the excuse was my profound sense of melancholy that descended over me within engaging the first few chapters. —  Aj Schwanz
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged excuse

i don't want to think · i dont want to fuck everything up · brain fade · that doggy in the window is expensive · after taxes · spontaneous combustion · hard drive crashed · i can't · i need a safe place · aegrotat · i can't speak spanish

More »

Stats

This word has been looked up 218 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

apology ·  explanation ·  pretext ·  justification ·  opportunity ·  answer ·  motive ·  reason ·  plea ·  objection ·  suggestion ·  lie

Used in the same contextWord Family

excuse:   excuses ·  excused
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English excusen, from Old French excuser, from Latin excūsāre : ex-, ex- + causa, accusation; see cause.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from ME, excusen, escusen, from Old French excuser, escuser, French excuser = Spanish excusar = Portuguese escusar = Italian scusare, from Latin excusare, excussare, excuse, allege in excuse, literally free from a charge, from ex, out, + causa, caussa, a charge: see cause. Cf. accuse.
  2. from French excuse = Spanish excusa = Portuguese escusa = Italian scusa, an excuse; from the verb.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ɛksˈkjus/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a day.

Recently looked up

seize · unfortunate · coxsackievirus · autochthonous · Matara

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich