Synonyms

reconcile

American

[rek-uhn-sahyl] / ˈrɛk ənˌsaɪl /

verb (used with object)

to cause (a person) to accept or be resigned to something not desired.

He was reconciled to his fate.
to win over to friendliness; cause to become amicable.

to reconcile hostile persons.

Synonyms:

placate, propitiate, pacify
to compose or settle (a quarrel, dispute, etc.).

Antonyms:

anger
to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent.

to reconcile differing statements;
to reconcile accounts.

Synonyms:

harmonize
to reconsecrate (a desecrated church, cemetery, etc.).
to restore (an excommunicate or penitent) to communion in a church.

verb (used without object)

to become reconciled.

reconcile British

/ ˈrɛkənˌsaɪl /

verb

to make (oneself or another) no longer opposed; cause to acquiesce in something unpleasant

she reconciled herself to poverty
to become friendly with (someone) after estrangement or to re-establish friendly relations between (two or more people)
to settle (a quarrel or difference)
to make (two apparently conflicting things) compatible or consistent with each other
to reconsecrate (a desecrated church, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

What does reconcile mean? Reconcile means to make amends, come to a truce, or settle a dispute. Reconcile can also mean to make things compatible or consistent with each other. This sense of the word is especially used when discussing two things that cannot be reconciled, such as two contrasting beliefs. Another sense of the word means to cause to accept a negative situation or become resigned to it, as in I am reconciled to my fate of never being able to afford my dream house. The noun form of reconcile is reconciliation, which refers to the process of reconciling. It’s also the name of a Catholic sacrament involving the confession of sin. Example: After years of not speaking to each other, the two finally sat down and reconciled.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of reconcile

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English reconcilen, from Latin reconciliāre “to make good again, repair,” equivalent to re- re- + conciliāre “to bring together” ( see conciliate)

Explanation

Reach for the verb reconcile to make different things come together or resolve a matter. If you've ever had an argument with someone and then made up, you have reconciled. Reconcile is a verb that can mean "to become resigned" like if you're reconciled to getting the bottom bunk when you wanted the top. It also means to "bring into agreement and harmony." Words like it are pacify, harmonize, and accommodate — reconcile is definitely an agreeable word!

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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:

reconcile reconciles reconciled reconciling

How did you reconcile the rock star and new dad halves of your life?

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

However, before the due date, the couple split up and did not reconcile.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

A similar tension shadows how we reconcile what Winfrey means to American culture.

From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026

She initially hoped to reconcile pressure from her parents to go into medicine with her sports fandom by becoming a team doctor for the Green Bay Packers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

Separation is familiar, too familiar, but Celia is uncertain she can reconcile it with permanence.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García

There is nothing that reconciles those two decisions through any logic or law.

From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2026

Driven to the edge of her mind with grief, Ann reconciles her misery with a vow of celibacy.

From Salon ● Dec. 27, 2025

With key data blacked out by the government shutdown, officials lacked the usual information that often reconciles differences.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 22, 2025

More like a short story, recounting the evening from Hart’s point of view as he reconciles with the fact that his former creative partner Richard Rodgers has created a hit with Oscar Hammerstein.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2025

But habit and tradition have reconciled us to these things in their native forms, and Mr. Morris's skill reconciles us to them in his modern and composite English.

From Views and Reviews by Henry James

The question for the chancellor is whether better consumer and business spirits can be reconciled with the need for a "challenging" Budget?

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

Phobos' present-day gravity field, shape, density, spectral properties, and changing orbit must all be reconciled within a single geophysical model.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

"That includes several audits. They have now reconciled their historical data, and recently they published a revised bulletin with the historical data, incorporating the findings of the debt," she said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026

In those earliest works using magazine transfers, Cowin layered disjunctive images, visually uniting realities that can’t easily be reconciled emotionally.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

She seemed not only to acquiesce, to be reconciled to her life and marriage, but to be actually proud of it.

From "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner

The researchers had already published work aimed at reconciling argon-argon dating with uranium-lead dating, the two methods most widely used to determine the ages of rocks.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

Here the airborne concrete terraces above were anchored to the earth, reconciling the products of the machine with nature, making Fallingwater the definitive example of what Wright called his “organic architecture.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

He told Europe's nuclear summit that "nuclear power is key to reconciling both independence, and thus energy sovereignty, with decarbonisation, and thus carbon neutrality".

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026

"Nuclear power is key to reconciling both independence -- and thus energy sovereignty -- with decarbonisation, and thus carbon neutrality," Macron said.

From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026

She claims there is a fire-breathing paper dragon somewhere in the tent, and though Bailey believes her, he has difficulty reconciling in his head the idea of paper that breathes fire.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023