alibi
Americannoun
-
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)
verb (used with object)
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
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Twelve Angry Men
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"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
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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:
Lane’s alibi hinged on whether anyone had seen the sisters alive after his return to rehab.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
But he was released on the basis of his alibi.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
The governor has denied any knowledge of the plot and has an alibi that he was traveling to Los Angeles that day.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 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
There were few physical clues, and Weaver, as it turned out, had an alibi.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Other potential suspects had alibis of their own.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
"The alibis that were placed forward around the time of the trial; they've been blown out of the water," adds Mr Maleary.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2025
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
Inc. Bridge Expert Ely Culbertson alibied his cancellation of a bridge match with the four Marx Brothers who play a fair game.
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
When Berlin was bombed, Germans alibied that the R.A.F.:
From Time Magazine Archive
"That was issued before my time," he alibied.
From The Cartels Jungle by Cox, Irving E.
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
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.
