extenuation

noun

ex·ten·u·a·tion ik-ˌsten-yə-ˈwā-shən

-yü-ˈā-

Synonyms of extenuation next

: the act of extenuating something or the state of being extenuated

especially : partial justification

… it was never her aspiration to express herself virtuously so much as cleverly—a point to be remembered in extenuation of her words, which were usually worse than she was. —

George Eliot

The best we can say in extenuation is to point out that glory rather than greed prompted this act of injustice to a seaman. —

Samuel Eliot Morison

: something extenuating

especially : a partial excuse

He persuades us that … he was poor and that he was financially burdened with a wife and four children. One shudders for any contemporary wretch who would come before Safire's pen with a similar budget of extenuations. —

Thomas Flanagan

Examples of extenuation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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Not surprisingly, fellow-travelers on the left criticized Conquest either from a wish to disbelieve the Soviet horrors or from an ideological sympathy that compelled extenuation of them. —

Peter J. Travers, National Review, 29 Mar. 2022