EXCUSES Synonyms: 79 Similar and Opposite Words

excuses 1 of 2

noun

plural of excuse

as in justifications

an explanation that frees one from fault or blame "a really important business call" is no excuse for not paying proper attention to one's driving

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excuses

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of excuse

as in ignores

to dismiss as of little importance more often than not, voters are willing to excuse a candidate's youthful indiscretion

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in justifies

to be an acceptable reason for having a female passenger in labor will generally excuse a little disregard for the speed limit

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as in explains

to make (something) seem less bad by offering excuses he's always excusing his chronic lying by claiming that everybody lies

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of excuses

Noun

None of this excuses Chris’ malicious behavior, not just toward Carrie but toward her future stepsister, Brooklyn (Rowan Danielle), and the school as a whole, mostly via a fake Instagram account devoted to smearing students and faculty alike. — ArsTechnica, 21 Oct. 2026 They are held to a standard that doesn't include entitlement, excuses, or any agenda other than TEAM. — Joe Kinsey Outkick, FOXNews.com, 20 Oct. 2026 But the United States has used all the others at some point in the past two years as excuses to impose levies on its trading partners. — Matthew Lynn, Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2026 David Waldowski Laguna Woods The excuses for the Dodgers collapse flew off the page minutes after the last out of Game 4. — Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2026 The town council will give so many excuses as to why they were approved. — Stephen Korka, Sun Sentinel, 13 Oct. 2026 The rules, which are never explained, are put there as flimsy excuses for aspects of the pilot that don’t hold together otherwise. — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 8 Oct. 2026 Only to see them, after winning elections, get strong-armed by the party, then offer lame excuses as to why. — Colleen Kujawa, Chicago Tribune, 2 Oct. 2026 Now, none of this excuses what Cathy does to poor, sweet, trusting Faye, whom Martha Plimpton plays with a chummy maternal quality that makes her grotesque demise that much more upsetting. — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026

Verb

So much so that the Texas head football coach excuses its 80th national ranking in offense. — Kirk Bohls, Houston Chronicle, 16 Oct. 2026 Created in 2007, PSLF excuses the federal student debt of government and nonprofit workers after 120 qualifying monthly payments. — Jessica Dickler,annie Nova, CNBC, 15 Oct. 2026 Following another sharp exchange between the siblings, Ellen excuses herself from dinner. — Max Gao, HollywoodReporter, 5 Oct. 2026 None of that excuses his behavior, but a change of brain function, rather than a change of heart, is something his constituents need to consider. — Michael P.h. Stanley, STAT, 10 Sep. 2026 Any person who celebrates, encourages, or excuses actions like these is fundamentally wrong. — Jesse Zanger, CBS News, 14 Aug. 2026 For me, the larger question is not whether artistic behavior excuses transgression, but how to hold artistic achievement and ethical accountability together without allowing one to erase the other. — Andy Battaglia, ARTnews.com, 3 Aug. 2026 Instead, some attack our business's fees, as though changing the subject somehow excuses copying another company's intellectual property. — Brian Taylor, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026 Because her beauty excuses all. — Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 1 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for excuses

Noun

Amid this intimacy, there are fundamental suspicions and self-serving justifications.

— Gary Baum, HollywoodReporter, 19 Oct. 2026
Tina was granted a divorce on grounds of cruelty, one of the few legal justifications for divorce in 1903.

— Andrew Coletti, Popular Science, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of justifications

Verb

Is Jan Crawford meant to adhere to standards while the editor-in-chief consistently ignores them?

— Daniel Strauss, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2026
In Bethany Joy Lenz’s debut fiction novel, a painter spends her days honoring ordinary women the world overlooked — ones whose deaths were caused or enabled by a system that ignores them.

— Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of ignores

Verb

Building a new jail, the suit claims, doesn’t meet the legal test that justifies extended after-hours work, which are allowed only on (among other things) projects that are in the interest of public health and safety.

— Curbed, Curbed, 21 Oct. 2026
Luxury fashion — an industry that justifies its price tag through the promise of human craftsmanship — has enjoyed nodding to robots, and in particular fem-bots, for decades.

— Leah Dolan, CNN Money, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of justifies

Verb

Chenault explains how leaders can establish clear priorities when the stakes are high, encourage employees to speak up about problems, and challenge the status quo.

— Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review, 27 Oct. 2026
This explains why my breakdown happened during perimenopause along with the unfortunate timing of a lactose intolerance diagnosis (bye-bye, calcium-rich dairy).

— Cheryl Fenton, Flow Space, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of explains

Noun

Experts studying fear have theorized that one of the major reasons people are flocking to horror experiences lately — whether theme parks, novels or movies — is that the world feels so uncertain.

— Ayesha Rascoe, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
But the offensive line has turned out to be TCU’s biggest weakness this season and one of the primary reasons the program sits at 3-4 (1-3 Big 12).

— Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 25 Oct. 2026

Definition of reasons

Verb

After losing his reelection bid to Bill Clinton in 1992, Bush issued Christmas Eve pardons to six Reagan administration officials convicted of or facing trials for crimes related to Iran-Contra.

— Tracy Grant, Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Aug. 2026
Trump pardons ex-Republican congressman.

— Jay Stahl, USA Today, 7 June 2026

Definition of pardons

Verb

Take Málaga’s Monumental Cemetery of San Sebastian, in Spain, which overlooks the typical picturesque Andalusian countryside populated with olive groves.

— Mitchell Gilburne, Architectural Digest, 26 Oct. 2026
Today, it’s often read as severe—but this overlooks how much brightness and space these buildings typically hold.

— Alex Eagle, Vogue, 25 Oct. 2026

Definition of overlooks

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excused

excuses

excusing

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Style

“Excuses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/excuses. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of excuses

noun

verb

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