atones

verb

present tense third-person singular of atone
as in confesses

Related Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for atones
  1. confesses
  2. apologizes
  3. justifies
Verb
  • Disarmed by his stepson’s surprise appearance, Morgan confesses to being the cheater.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Prue follows the advice, confesses what happened to Mac, and discovers the secret her parents have been keeping from her all along.
    — Pete Hammond, Deadline, 11 Oct. 2026
Definition of confesses
Verb
  • When a company apologizes badly, the apology becomes the second crisis, and the second crisis is often the one people remember.
    — Ronn Torossian, Forbes.com, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Her father acknowledges what went wrong, apologizes, asks forgiveness, and changes.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of apologizes
Verb
  • Human Rights Watch did not seek to establish membership, noting that neither gang affiliation nor a criminal record justifies excessive force or an extrajudicial killing.
    — Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 28 Oct. 2026
  • Building a new jail, the suit claims, doesn’t meet the legal test that justifies extended after-hours work, which are allowed only on (among other things) projects that are in the interest of public health and safety.
    — Curbed, Curbed, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of justifies
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

atonements
atones
atones (for)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Atones.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/atones. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of valorous

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
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 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?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All