alibi
Americannoun
-
alibis
plural
-
Law. the defense by an accused person of having been elsewhere at the time an alleged offense was committed.
-
an excuse, especially to avoid blame.
- Synonyms:
- justification, reason, explanation
-
a person used as one's excuse.
My sick grandmother was my alibi for missing school.
verb (used without object)
-
alibis,
present (3rd person singular)
-
alibied,
past participle, past
-
alibiing
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
alibis,
present (3rd person singular)
-
alibied,
past participle, past
-
alibiing
present participle
noun
-
law
-
a defence by an accused person that he was elsewhere at the time the crime in question was committed
-
the evidence given to prove this
-
-
informal an excuse
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
alibisimple
-
alibissimple
-
have alibiedperfect
-
has alibiedperfect
-
am alibiingprogressive
-
are alibiingprogressive
-
is alibiingprogressive
-
have been alibiingperfect progressive
-
has been alibiingperfect progressive
Past
-
alibiedsimple
-
had alibiedperfect
-
was alibiingprogressive
-
were alibiingprogressive
-
had been alibiingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of alibi
First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin alibī (adverb): “in another place, elsewhere”
Explanation
Your alibi is evidence that proves your innocence. If you were making cookies with your mom when someone raided your sister's piggy bank, your mom is your alibi, since she knows you were with her when the crime was committed. The noun alibi is the same word as its Latin root, alibi, which means "excuse." When you provide an alibi, you are giving proof — a certified excuse — that you could not have committed a crime. Alibi is easy to confuse with alias, which means "an assumed, or false, name."
Vocabulary lists containing alibi
The Westing Game
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Twelve Angry Men
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Friends also gave him an alibi for the night the Star had claimed he was enjoying the company of Ms Coghlan.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
The Fed calls this being data dependent, a phrase with the cadence of a discipline and the function of an alibi.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
During trial, Miles presented an alibi defense that included testimony from his parents, 12-year-old son, a neighbor in Las Vegas and the manager of his Las Vegas apartment, according to the district attorney’s office.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
But he got his first name wrong, and the person he actually accused turned out to have a firm alibi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
“Kid, next time you make up an alibi, try to make it sound a little less ridiculous.”
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
Kierans described the case as "very challenging" due to the "destruction of evidence and provision of false alibis".
From BBC ● May 29, 2026
Other potential suspects had alibis of their own.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
Baker’s housemates, Duncan Martinez and Nathan Blalock, both military veterans in their early 20s, had been the last known people to see him alive, and served as each other’s alibis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2025
Both Hall’s wife, scion of a prominent and wealthy New Jersey family, and Mills’s working-class husband appeared to have solid alibis.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2022
The police reported on Salim’s friends’ alibis the day he disappeared.
From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd
Williams excoriated feminist leaders who excused Bill and alibied for him.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2017
He damned his critics, alibied himself, said that his grief and helplessness, bringing on another attack of tuberculosis, had brought him to the edge of the grave.
From Time Magazine Archive
The subsequent aggression of Bolivia against Paraguay was sonorously alibied, last week, by Bolivian delegate Diez de Medina, addressing the Conference in Washington.
From Time Magazine Archive
"The banquet hall was somewhat overheated," he alibied, "and President Kemal merely invited His Excellency the Egyptian Minister to remove his fez for his own greater comfort."
From Time Magazine Archive
He had recalled Sim Colby’s black ones while thinking of unusual eyes in general and had, in passing, set him down as one who stood alibied.
From The Law of Hemlock Mountain by Hugh Lundsford
By now Detroit was through alibiing for '58.
From Time Magazine Archive
The combination of televised second-guessing, N.F.L. stonewalling and coaches complaining, perhaps alibiing, has brought the striped-shirt arbiters a notoriety they would just as soon had passed them by.
From Time Magazine Archive
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
