Library / English Dictionary

ATONEMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity)

Synonyms:

atonement; expiation; propitiation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("atonement" is a kind of...):

redemption; salvation ((theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "atonement"):

amends; reparation (something done or paid in expiation of a wrong)

Derivation:

atone (turn away from sin or do penitence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Compensation for a wrong

Example:

we were unable to get satisfaction from the local store

Synonyms:

atonement; expiation; satisfaction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("atonement" is a kind of...):

amends; damages; indemnification; indemnity; redress; restitution (a sum of money paid in compensation for loss or injury)

Derivation:

atone (make amends for)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I loved her none the less; I thought of her as the same benignant, gentle angel in my life; I reproached myself, not her, with having done him an injury; and I would have made him any atonement if I had known what to make, and how to make it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Miss Bates stood in the very worst predicament in the world for having much of the public favour; and she had no intellectual superiority to make atonement to herself, or frighten those who might hate her into outward respect.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I did not know my danger till the danger was removed; but with such feelings as these reflections gave me, I wonder at my recovery,—wonder that the very eagerness of my desire to live, to have time for atonement to my God, and to you all, did not kill me at once.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)