extenuation
noun
ex·ten·u·a·tion
ik-ˌsten-yə-ˈwā-shən 
-yü-ˈā-
1
: 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
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
Samuel Eliot Morison 2
: 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
Thomas Flanagan Examples of extenuation in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
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
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Peter J. Travers, National Review, 29 Mar. 2022
Dictionary Entries Near extenuation
Cite this Entry
“Extenuation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extenuation. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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