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Meaning & use

expiate

verb·Advancedformalliterary

Last updated

UK/ˈek.spi.eɪt/
US/ˈek.spi.eɪt/

Meaning

  1. verbtransitive

    To make up for a serious wrong or sin by suffering a penalty or doing something good.

    Grammar: Takes an object naming the wrongdoing: expiate a crime, or expiate your guilt.

    Patterns

    • expiate something
    • expiate something by doing something

    He tried to expiate his guilt by working at the shelter every weekend.

    The king built a chapel to expiate the sins of his youth.

    She felt that no punishment could expiate the harm she had done.

Word forms

third person singularexpiates
past tenseexpiated
past participleexpiated
-ing formexpiating

Common combinations

expiate a sin
Pilgrims walked for weeks to expiate a sin.
expiate one's guilt
He gave money to expiate his guilt.
expiate a crime
He served ten years to expiate his crime.
expiate through suffering
She believed she must expiate her wrongs through suffering.
seek to expiate
The company sought to expiate its past mistakes.

Synonyms and how they differ

atone
Atone is the more common word and takes for, as in atone for a sin, while expiate takes the wrong directly as its object.
make amends
Make amends is plain and everyday, focusing on repairing the harm done to others.
redeem
Redeem suggests buying back one's reputation or value, rather than paying for a wrong.
absolve
Absolve means to declare someone free of blame, which is done by another person, not by yourself.

Word family

expiation noun
the act of making up for a wrong
expiatory adjective
done to make up for a wrong
expiable adjective
able to be atoned for
expiator noun
a person who atones

Commonly confused: expiate or expire? expiate or expatiate?

expiate vs expire

Expire means to come to an end or to die, and it is not related to making amends.

expiate vs expatiate

Expatiate means to speak or write at length on a subject, and it sounds similar to expiate.

Practice

The soldier hoped to ___ his crimes by serving the village for the rest of his life.

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