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verb

extenuate

to make guilt or an offense seem less serious

In a sentence

Six example sentences with extenuate, each labelled with its topic.

  • Nothing the defense offered could extenuate a decade of falsified invoices, and the sentence reflected every one of them.

    Law

  • Studies show juries extenuate a defendant's actions once they hear about sleepless nights and a sudden bereavement.

    Psychology

  • The chief executive tried to extenuate the missed deadline by listing supplier failures, but the board had heard it before.

    Business

  • The minister tried to extenuate the leak by blaming an intern, but the opposition wanted to know who had approved it.

    Politics

  • The coach would not extenuate the technical foul, saying a bad call never excuses throwing the ball into the stands.

    Basketball

  • Aristotle argued that ignorance of the facts can extenuate a wrong act, though ignorance of the law cannot.

    Philosophy

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Found in these word lists

Found in 3 published word listsRecognized

Each source is a published word list that contains extenuate. No exam board publishes an official GRE, GMAT or SAT list; GMAT words come from GRE lists and the Academic Word List.

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