Expiation
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An act of atonement for a sin or wrongdoing. countable, uncountable
"One day he came not: I was told, and truly, that business the most imperative required his personal attendance; yet I could not force the ghastly terror of his illness from my mind. I dared not tempt my fate by content—the agony which I suffered seemed a sort of expiation."
- 2 the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity) wordnet
- 3 The act of expiating or stripping off. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"expiation of his immanities fore."
- 4 compensation for a wrong wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"One day he came not: I was told, and truly, that business the most imperative required his personal attendance; yet I could not force the ghastly terror of his illness from my mind. I dared not tempt my fate by content—the agony which I suffered seemed a sort of expiation."
Etymology
From Middle French expiation, from Latin expiātiō(n) (“satisfaction”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.