as in to excuse
to make (something) seem less bad by offering excuses
don't even try to extenuate their vandalism of the cemetery with the old refrain of "Boys will be boys"
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for extenuate
Verb
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But don’t excuse Montgomery Steppe or Aguirre.—
U T Editorial Board,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026 -
Cherfilus-McCormick has denied wrongdoing, excusing the allegations as an accounting error.—
Lauren Peller,
ABC News,
22 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The act of getting high no longer carries the same inherent tension, legal or otherwise, and the niche genre that stoner filmmakers once built around the drug has struggled to justify its own existence.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
20 Apr. 2026
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The Stones fired Jones in June 1969 but would have been justified doing so a couple years earlier.—
Marc Ballon,
Los Angeles Times,
20 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Mike Jones of The Athletic explains why the lack of top-tier quarterback prospects beyond Fernando Mendoza limits the intrigue typically expected of NFL drafts.—
Andrew Greif,
NBC news,
24 Apr. 2026
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One final metric that explains the nature of Bromley’s style is their passing sequences.—
Anantaajith Raghuraman,
New York Times,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Radiation can also be used to palliate painful bone metastases, as well as chemotherapy.—
Lauryn Higgins,
Flow Space,
1 Oct. 2024
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Senior-home avatars who are designed to palliate dementia patients in their darkest days.—
Longreads,
Longreads,
12 Apr. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Extenuate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/extenuate. Accessed 25 Apr. 2026.
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