- present participle of extenuate.
extenuating
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of extenuating
First recorded in 1600–10; extenuat(e) + -ing 2
Explanation
You'll be furious that your friend didn't bake the cupcakes she promised for your bake sale — until you learn the extenuating circumstances: her dog climbed onto her kitchen counter and ate all the cupcake batter. Extenuating means "making forgivable." The adjective extenuating is unusual because it's almost always used with the word circumstances; the phrase extenuating circumstances describes the specific reasons that excuse or justify someone's actions. The phrase became popular in the 1840s, and is even used in law to lessen punishment for crimes, but before that extenuating meant "lessening or making small." The Latin word for "thin," tenuis, combined with ex, means "to make thin", or to dilute a person's guilt because of a good excuse.
Vocabulary lists containing extenuating
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Ender's Game
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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.
Medicare doesn’t cover you for emergency hospital care overseas, except in certain extenuating circumstances where a foreign hospital may be closer than a U.S. one.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 13, 2026
There were extenuating circumstances, however, such as the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the Whitecaps to split one season between sequesters in Canada and Portland, Ore., then start the next season quarantined in Utah.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025
Swansea University students can access a carers passport to help facilitate reasonable adjustments and extenuating circumstances.
From BBC • Aug. 9, 2025
“The one thing I can tell you is that everyone that’s ever worked for me has always gotten paid. Obviously, the circumstances here are a little extenuating, but yes, everybody will be paid eventually.”
From Slate • Apr. 18, 2024
He wanted to plead his friend’s case, explain the extenuating circumstances.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
