exonerated
Americanadjective
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of exonerated
Explanation
Use the adjective exonerated to describe someone who's been proven innocent. A boy whose mother thinks he stole a bag of candy is exonerated when his teacher explains that he won the candy in a spelling contest. When a suspect is let off the hook, or freed from guilt, he is exonerated. A prisoner set free after his lawyer presents new evidence is exonerated of his crime, and a basketball player might be exonerated of a foul accusation once the referees examine a video tape of the game. Exonerated comes from the Latin word for "remove a burden or unload," exoneratus. When the burden of guilt is removed from you, you're exonerated.
Vocabulary lists containing exonerated
Between the World and Me
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All My Sons
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Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?
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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.
“I’m confident she’s going to be exonerated when all this is said and done.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
An internal disciplinary process subsequently exonerated the officer and he was reinstated by the force.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
She said she had been "exonerated" of the accusation she had "deliberately sought to avoid tax" in a statement on Thursday.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
That bird was also labeled a spy before being exonerated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
At the cafeteria, where a shrinking slice of my consciousness still resided, Daisy was telling Mychal that his averaging project shouldn’t be about people named Mychal but about imprisoned men who’d later been exonerated.
From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green
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.
