exonerate means to relieve (someone or something) of a load; to unburden (a load). It carries an Arena rating of 1480, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, exonerate ranks #2,328 of 14,438 for Most Storied Words, #2,340 of 14,361 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,350 of 14,448 for Most Incisive Words, #7,082 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words.
exonerate is pronounced /ɪɡˈzɒnəɹeɪt/.
Why “exonerate” is a great word
To clear someone from blame, guilt, or a formal charge, especially after official consideration of the evidence. From the Latin *exonerare* ("to unburden"), from *ex-* ("out, from") + *onus, oner-* ("a burden, load"), first attested in English in the 1520s in the literal sense 'to unload'. Unlike "exculpate," which tends to focus on clearing from fault based on evidence of blamelessness, or "acquit," which is a specific legal judgment of not guilty, "exonerate" implies a more complete, official vindication that lifts a weight. It is the prisoner released after DNA evidence proves what testimony could not, the bureaucrat whose sealed records finally absolve him of decades-old suspicion, and the cold, formal print of a document that makes a voided conviction read like an obituary for lost time—a small, administrative triumph over a vast and intimate injustice.
Etymology
From Middle English exoneraten (attested in past participle exonerated), from Latin exonerātus, past perfect participle of exonerō (“to discharge, unload; to exonerate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Exonerō is from ex- (“out, from”) + onerō (“to burden, lade; to load”) further from onus (oner-) (“a burden, load”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃énh₂os (“burden, load”), from *h₃enh₂- (“to charge, onerate”). Compare French exonérer.
verb
- To relieve (someone or something) of a load; to unburden (a load).
- Of a body of water: to discharge or empty (itself).“I would examine the Caſpian Sea, and ſee where and how it exonerates it ſelfe, after it hath taken in Volga, Iaxares, Oxus, and thoſe great rivers; at the mouth of Oby, or where?”
- To free (someone) from an obligation, responsibility or task.
- To free (someone) from accusation or blame.
adj
- Freed from an obligation; freed from accusation or blame; acquitted, exonerated.
Words closest in meaning
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