atone (for)

verb

ə-ˈtōn How to pronounce atone (for) (audio)
Definition of atone (for)next
as in to compensate
to make up for (an offense) tried to atone for forgetting their anniversary by giving his wife a truly extravagant gift

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for atone (for)
  1. compensate
  2. redeem
  3. repay
  4. correct
  5. expiate
Verb
  • While other marketers focused on engagement rate and follower count, Johnson emphasizes the long-term value of a creator’s likeness, arguing that creators should be compensated accordingly.
    — Kristen Bousquet, Forbes, 20 Mar. 2025
  • Low rates of unemployment tend to compensate for some of the pain that high levels of inflation bring because businesses generally can only raise prices when people are earning enough to afford it.
    — Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN, 20 Mar. 2025
Definition of compensate
Verb
  • Best of all, travelers can also redeem Alaska Air Mileage Plan frequent flyer miles for the one-way deals on select flights as low as 4,500 miles.
    — Michael Cappetta, Travel + Leisure, 18 Mar. 2025
  • UConn won last year’s meeting in Portland 80-73 as the 3-seed, but USC redeemed itself with a 72-70 upset of the Huskies in Hartford on Dec. 21 this season.
    — Emily Adams, Hartford Courant, 17 Mar. 2025
Definition of redeem
Verb
  • Bank small-dollar loans: Growing in popularity, these are typically less than $1,000 and repaid in a few weeks or months.
    — Medora Lee, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2025
  • The company completed the redemption of its Preferred Shares and repaid its Senior Notes, reflecting a focus on optimizing its capital structure.
    — Quartz Intelligence Newsroom, Quartz, 19 Mar. 2025
Definition of repay
Verb
  • The station was damaged after its launch, forcing NASA to delay launching the crew and to map out and practice procedures for correcting Skylab’s problems.
    — Alice George, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Mar. 2025
  • This is a company that after several years of underperformance has finally corrected its issues, but which the Street is not yet ready to trust.
    — Kenneth Squire, CNBC, 15 Mar. 2025
Definition of correct
Verb
  • The Sisters have come a long way, but never strayed from their mission: to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt.
    — Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2023
  • But now Epstein, 49, is wearing a different hat, and hoping to expiate his unintended sins against a sport that has been his lifelong passion.
    — David Axelrod, CNN, 1 Apr. 2023
Definition of expiate
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

atone (for)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Atone (for).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/atone%20%28for%29. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.

Copy Citation

Share

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Words You Always Have to Look Up
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Top 10 Sophisticated Insults

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden

More Words with Remarkable Origins

Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments
See More

Popular Features

See More

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

Top 10 Sophisticated Insults

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
dog-in-disguise
Rhyme Disguise Quiz Pair up words that look different but sound alike.
See All