Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
Making less dense; rarefaction.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
The action or process of making slender or diminishing in bulk; an instance of this.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
The action of making less or weak; and instance of this; a weakening, impoverishment. Also, mitigation (of blame or punishment).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
The action of representing (something) as slight and trifling; underrating; an instance of this, a plea to this end; a modification in terms.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
The action of representing (something) as slight and trifling; underrating; an instance of this, a plea to this end; a modification in terms.
A figure in which a term is used which, in contrast with the more fitting term it supplants, understates or seeks to diminish the significance of something.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, obsolete, rhetoric, uncountable
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
The action of lessening, or seeking to lessen, the guilt of (an offence or fault) by alleging partial excuses; and instance or means of doing this; a plea in mitigation of censure.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
Thin garments.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, countable, humorous, in-plural, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
to act in such a way as to cause an offense to seem less serious
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: mitigation, palliation
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: decrease, diminution, reduction, step-down
noun
a partial excuse to mitigate censure; an attempt to represent an offense as less serious than it appears by showing mitigating circumstances
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: mitigation
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: excuse, alibi, exculpation, self-justification
History
An adaptation of extenuātiōn-, the oblique stem of the Latin extenuātiō (“a thinning or diminishing”, “rarefaction”; rhetoric “a lessening”, “diminution”, “extenuation”), noun of action from extenuō (“to thin, reduce, or diminish”). Equivalent to extenuate + -ion. Compare the French exténuation.
Across languages
1 source translations are retained for this English entry.
