Communication
Synonyms for excuse
Synonyms for excuse: explain, condone and apology. Every one of them is a hand audited pair from the Synonym Stack word bank, shown below in the sense it fits, in a real sentence, and beside the words that only look close.
The 3 synonyms for excuse
Interchangeable with excuse, one per sense
Audited under excuse's own entry, so the meaning quoted is the one excuse carries in that sense.
- explainverb, in the sense "serve as a reason or cause or justification of"
- condoneverb, in the sense "excuse, overlook, or make allowances for"
Recorded from the other side of the pair
These entries were written under the other word and name excuse as the true synonym, so the sense quoted is theirs.
- apologyapology is a noun in the sense "a poor example"
Two directions, one standard: two audited under excuse and one under the partner word. Nothing here was expanded out of a thesaurus.
serve as a reason or cause or justification of
Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work.
excuse in 2 more sentences, same sense
- A messy desk does not excuse missing the client deadline twice in one month.
- Being new to the team does not excuse forgetting to lock the register at closing.
How it behaves: In this sense excuse is transitive and typically takes an abstract subject like a reason or circumstance, paired with a negated verb such as "does not excuse," often in mildly formal or admonishing speech.
The true synonym
explain
Same sentence, swapped: Your need to sleep late does not explain your late arrival at work.
Close but different
Distractors, not synonyms. This entry has no written reason line yet, so read them against the sentence and the sense above.
- apologize
- reason
- free
excuse, overlook, or make allowances for
Excuse someone's behavior.
The true synonym
condone
Same sentence, swapped: Condone someone's behavior.
Close but different
Wrong tiles, chosen to be tempting rather than absurd. The reason line above takes the nearest one apart; the rest fail the same sentence for their own reasons.
- explain
- apologize
- free
Where excuse turns up in the game
excuse is the word under test in two puzzles, spread across two difficulty tiers. It also sits on the board as one of the three wrong tiles in two other puzzles, where the answer is a different word entirely.
The puzzles where excuse is the trap
- chideverb, Tier 2, Treeline. The answer there is reprimand, in the sense "to scold someone mildly for a fault", and excuse is on the board beside it.
- scoldverb, Tier 2, Treeline. The answer there is reprimand, in the sense "to criticize someone angrily for wrongdoing", and excuse is one of the three tiles that lose.
Play excuse
The bank on this page is the bank the game plays from, so excuse reaches you as a board rather than a definition: the sentence first, four tiles, and the meaning after you choose.
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Closest first: other communication words at Foothills, then the same tier across the rest of the library.
The wrong tile gets explained too
Synonym Stack plays from this exact bank. excuse carries 1 written reason line, and the game shows them the moment a round ends, whichever tile you tapped.