as in confessing
to express regret for doing or saying something wrong
I want to apologize to you for my rude behavior yesterday. We apologize for the mistake and promise that it won't happen again.
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Recent Examples of apologizing
Later the same day, during a pageant welcome event, Itsaragrisil addressed a crowd of onlookers, apologizing to the Miss Universe delegates who could be seen standing behind him.
—
Staff Author, PEOPLE, 7 Nov. 2025
Miss Universe pageant executive Nawat Itsaragrisil has been dismissed after apologizing to Miss Mexico 2025 Fátima Bosch over their tense exchange that went viral, resulting in a walkout by multiple pageant contestants.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 6 Nov. 2025
Robby Soave delivers his radar on the Heritage Foundation President apologizing to staffers in the organization for defending Tucker Carlson's interview of Nick Fuentes.
—The Hill, 6 Nov. 2025
Mamdani tried to moderate his positions in the waning weeks of the campaign, appearing on Fox News and apologizing to police officers for once labeling the NYPD as racist, wicked and corrupt.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 4 Nov. 2025
Huda issues an apology after downplaying the incident After initially downplaying the outrage over her reaction, Mustafa posted another statement on Wednesday publicly apologizing to Carthen.
—Taylor Ardrey, USA Today, 31 Oct. 2025
All of it comes after a new email leaked showed Fergie apologizing to Epstein for publicly disowning him and Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, detailing her abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and her encounters with Andrew.
—Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 29 Oct. 2025
But Cate gets almost no attention outside the nice sequence of Marie apologizing and healing her.
—Ben Rosenstock, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2025
And don’t spend the evening apologizing or hiding in the kitchen.
—Alesandra Dubin, Southern Living, 21 Oct. 2025
Staff Author, PEOPLE, 7 Nov. 2025
Miss Universe pageant executive Nawat Itsaragrisil has been dismissed after apologizing to Miss Mexico 2025 Fátima Bosch over their tense exchange that went viral, resulting in a walkout by multiple pageant contestants.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 6 Nov. 2025
Robby Soave delivers his radar on the Heritage Foundation President apologizing to staffers in the organization for defending Tucker Carlson's interview of Nick Fuentes.
—The Hill, 6 Nov. 2025
Mamdani tried to moderate his positions in the waning weeks of the campaign, appearing on Fox News and apologizing to police officers for once labeling the NYPD as racist, wicked and corrupt.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 4 Nov. 2025
Huda issues an apology after downplaying the incident After initially downplaying the outrage over her reaction, Mustafa posted another statement on Wednesday publicly apologizing to Carthen.
—Taylor Ardrey, USA Today, 31 Oct. 2025
All of it comes after a new email leaked showed Fergie apologizing to Epstein for publicly disowning him and Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, detailing her abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and her encounters with Andrew.
—Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 29 Oct. 2025
But Cate gets almost no attention outside the nice sequence of Marie apologizing and healing her.
—Ben Rosenstock, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2025
And don’t spend the evening apologizing or hiding in the kitchen.
—Alesandra Dubin, Southern Living, 21 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for apologizing
Verb
-
The couple starts confessing secrets.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
26 Dec. 2025
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The book chronicles Harpootlian’s firsthand experience prosecuting Gaskins, who was executed in 1991 after confessing to at least 13 murders.—
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten,
FOXNews.com,
21 Dec. 2025
Verb
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There is no excusing his remarks about Childress, whose everyman, never-back-down persona is something with which many fans identify.—
Jordan Bianchi,
New York Times,
7 Jan. 2026
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There was also the spat with coach Steve Kerr that resulted in Green excusing himself to the locker room and never returning.—
Justice delos Santos,
Mercury News,
4 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The dispute was resolved after Singh agreed to provide additional context, explaining that the files were collaborative documents shared among participants through the messaging app Signal.—
Ryan Macasero,
Mercury News,
10 Jan. 2026
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Scanning them launches video tutorials explaining what each product does — without forcing customers to ask questions in a store.—
Luke Fountain,
CNBC,
10 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Two skeptics of the COVID vaccine, who were appointed to administration roles just last month, authored a brief assessment justifying the overhaul.—
Grayson Logue,
Washington Post,
9 Jan. 2026
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But the opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel justifying the strikes remains classified.—
Caitlin Yilek,
CBS News,
8 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Apologizing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apologizing. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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