as in excusing
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"
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Recent Examples of extenuating
But there were plenty of extenuating circumstances.
—
Barry M. Bloom, Sportico.com, 5 Sep. 2025
Stats courtesy of Pro-Football Reference There were some extenuating circumstances, the most important being that Burrow did not previously play in the preseason.
—Gladys Louise Tyler, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
Several more are under elevated pressure due to extenuating circumstances, which are outlined below and unique to each coach and his campus.
—Jon Wilner, Mercury News, 18 Aug. 2025
This week on Prime Video’s Countdown, personally extenuating circumstances led LAPD gangs and narcotics officer Lucas Finau to break protocol and exhibit atypically audacious behavior — all during a critical juncture in Hurricane Task Force’s ongoing manhunt.
—Matt Webb Mitovich, TVLine, 10 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for extenuating
Recent Examples of Synonyms for extenuating
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.—
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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.—
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.—
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But the opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel justifying the strikes remains classified.—
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.—
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Scanning them launches video tutorials explaining what each product does — without forcing customers to ask questions in a store.—
Cite this Entry
“Extenuating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/extenuating. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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