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EXTENUATE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they extenuate ... he / she / it extenuates
Past simple: extenuated
Past participle: extenuated
-ing form: extenuating
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of
Example:
The circumstances extenuate the crime
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "extenuate" is one way to...):
apologise; apologize; excuse; rationalise; rationalize (defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning)
Domain category:
jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Derivation:
extenuation (to act in such a way as to cause an offense to seem less serious)
extenuation (a partial excuse to mitigate censure; an attempt to represent an offense as less serious than it appears by showing mitigating circumstances)
