excuse
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to regard or judge with forgiveness or indulgence; pardon or forgive; overlook (a fault, error, etc.).
Excuse his bad manners.
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to offer an apology for; seek to remove the blame of.
He excused his absence by saying that he was ill.
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to serve as an apology or justification for; justify.
Ignorance of the law excuses no one.
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to release from an obligation or duty.
to be excused from jury duty.
- Synonyms:
- free
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to seek or obtain exemption or release for (oneself ).
to excuse oneself from a meeting.
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to refrain from exacting; remit; dispense with.
to excuse a debt.
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to allow (someone) to leave.
If you'll excuse me, I have to make a telephone call.
noun
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an explanation offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or for release from an obligation, promise, etc..
His excuse for being late was unacceptable.
- Synonyms:
- justification
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a ground or reason for excusing or being excused.
Ignorance is no excuse.
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the act of excusing someone or something.
-
a pretext or subterfuge.
He uses his poor health as an excuse for evading all responsibility.
-
an inferior or inadequate specimen of something specified.
That coward is barely an excuse for a man. Her latest effort is a poor excuse for a novel.
idioms
verb
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to pardon or forgive
he always excuses her unpunctuality
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to seek pardon or exemption for (a person, esp oneself)
to excuse oneself for one's mistakes
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to make allowances for; judge leniently
to excuse someone's ignorance
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to serve as an apology or explanation for; vindicate or justify
her age excuses her behaviour
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to exempt from a task, obligation, etc
you are excused making breakfast
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to dismiss or allow to leave
he asked them to excuse him
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to seek permission for (someone, esp oneself) to leave
he excused himself and left
-
euphemistic to go to the lavatory
-
an expression used to catch someone's attention or to apologize for an interruption, disagreement, or social indiscretion
noun
-
an explanation offered in defence of some fault or offensive behaviour or as a reason for not fulfilling an obligation, etc
he gave no excuse for his rudeness
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informal an inferior example of something specified; makeshift; substitute
she is a poor excuse for a hostess
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the act of excusing
Synonym Usage
Excuse, forgive, pardon imply being lenient or giving up the wish to punish. Excuse means to overlook some (usually) slight offense: to excuse bad manners. Forgive is applied to excusing more serious offenses: to forgive and forget. Pardon usually applies to a specific act of lenience or mercy by an official or superior: The governor was asked to pardon the condemned criminal. Excuse, apology both imply an explanation of some failure or failing. Excuse implies a desire to avoid punishment or rebuke. Apology usually implies acknowledgment that one has been in the wrong.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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excusablenessnoun
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excusalnoun
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excusernoun
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nonexcusablenessnoun
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self-excusenoun
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preexcuseverb (used with object)
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excusableadjective
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excuselessadjective
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excusiveadjective
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nonexcusableadjective
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self-excusedadjective
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self-excusingadjective
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unexcusableadjective
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unexcusedadjective
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unexcusingadjective
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excusablyadverb
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excusinglyadverb
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excusivelyadverb
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nonexcusablyadverb
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unexcusablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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excusesimple
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excusessimple
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have excusedperfect
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has excusedperfect
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am excusingprogressive
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are excusingprogressive
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is excusingprogressive
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have been excusingperfect progressive
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has been excusingperfect progressive
Past
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excusedsimple
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had excusedperfect
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was excusingprogressive
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were excusingprogressive
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had been excusingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of excuse
First recorded in 1250–1300; (verb) Middle English escusen, excusen, from Old French escuser, excuser, from Latin excūsāre “to put outside, exonerate,” equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + -cūsāre, derivative of causa cause; (noun) Middle English escuse, excuse, from Old French excuse, derivative of escuser, excuser
Explanation
An excuse is an explanation for something that went wrong. When we give an excuse, we're trying to get someone to cut us some slack. When you finish dinner and ask, "May I be excused?" you've used one of many meanings of this word. It’s generally a reason for behavior: A note from your parents saying you have a doctor’s appointment can excuse you from school for the day. If your dog is sick, he has an excuse for barfing in the house. But be careful — making excuses can get awfully close to whining.
Vocabulary lists containing excuse
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act III
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"The War of the Wall" by Toni Cade Bambara
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"The House on Mango Street" and "The Road Not Taken"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There’s no excuse for this not becoming a crossover hit.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
A third calls for a pulse check on a law passed by the Legislature in 2025 that lets public schools excuse student absences for off-campus religious instruction.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
Unified a “get out of jail free” card to excuse its past and possibly current practices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Rather than see AI as an excuse to think less, I see it as an opportunity to think harder and to broaden and deepen our understanding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
“The good times can never excuse the bad, and love and kindness should never be a reward for good behavior. Doing things for others so they’ll approve of and love you isn’t love.”
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
At these schools, there are no excuses, and the achievement gap has all but disappeared.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
When people notice his plentiful bruises, Almásy makes up excuses, leading them to think he’s a klutz.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
Rodman said: "Not to make excuses at all, but I think on both sides we were all like, 'another break, another break, another break'."
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
With a roster full of players from major European teams and 13 who were World Cup veterans, a lack of quality and experience no longer were valid excuses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Until, at last, he had grown older and found excuses for spending all of his holidays away from the house.
From "I'm the King of the Castle" by Susan Hill
Kohli was excused from attending the brief hearing.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
You’ll be excused for viewing that shameless promotion with cynicism as long as you also leave room to appreciate it as an indicator of how far the group has pulled popular culture.
From Salon ● May 31, 2026
The informant excused himself to head upstairs to retrieve the money, a signal for Haitian police commandos to storm in.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026
With his mind busy on Iran, Trump could perhaps have been excused for another lapse when it came to Irish politics.
From Barron's ● Mar. 17, 2026
Shadow excused himself to use the bathroom—a cramped, closet-like room near the front door, hung with several brown-spotted framed photographs.
From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
A people can’t cry out for deliverance while refusing correction or ask God for justice while excusing wrongdoing in its own ranks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
Decrees excusing certain individuals from Mass are generally issued on much smaller scales, giving certain congregants a pass because of issues like illness or natural disasters, Hoover said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2025
School staff told Estyn that parents sometimes challenged the approach to behaviour and many described a few parents as "unsupportive, sometimes undermining staff by excusing poor behaviour".
From BBC ● May 7, 2025
I'm not excusing any of his behavior and I do think that if anyone is an unhealthy situation they have every right to leave and probably should leave.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2024
I don’t want you to think I’m sidestepping that, or excusing it, or even forgiving it; it’s not for me to forgive, anyhow.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
