excuse
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An explanation designed to avoid or alleviate guilt or negative judgment.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihkskyoosSay the bold part a little louder.
noun: ikskyoossverb: ikskyooz
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪkskˈjus
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
countableuncountable
An explanation designed to avoid or alleviate guilt or negative judgment; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault.
(often with preceding negative adjective, especially sorry, poor, or lame) An example of something that is substandard or of inferior quality.
verb
transitive
To forgive; to pardon; to overlook.
transitive
To allow to leave, or release from any obligation.
To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for.
Accept an excuse for
Excuse, overlook, or make allowances for; be lenient with
transitive
To provide an excuse for; to justify.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Tone
- Offensive
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An explanation designed to avoid or alleviate guilt or negative judgment; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault.
Used this way, excuse is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use excuse
- “He had to get his mother to write an excuse for him.”noun
- “He kept finding excuses to stay.”noun
- “Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: explanation designed to avoid or alleviate guilt
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.