expiation means an act of atonement for a sin or wrongdoing. It carries an Arena rating of 1729, earned across 58 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, expiation ranks #2,005 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #2,244 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #3,078 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,122 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
expiation is pronounced /ɛkspiˈeɪʃən/.
Why “expiation” is a great word
EXPIATION — [Noun] The act of atoning for or making amends for a sin or wrongdoing, often involving a specific act of reparation. From Middle French expiation, from Latin expiātiōnem (nominative expiātiō), meaning "satisfaction, atonement," from expiāre ("to atone for, make amends"), from ex- ("out, thoroughly") + piāre ("to appease, purify"). Unlike "propitiation," which seeks to soothe an offended power, or "penance," which denotes a self-inflicted punishment, expiation is the work of cleansing the stain itself. It is the meticulous scrubbing of a bloodstain from a stone floor, the solemn planting of a grove where a sacred tree was felled, the exact weight of silver returned after years of secret debt—the arduous attempt to balance the ledger, knowing the original sum is gone forever.
Etymology
From Middle French expiation, from Latin expiātiō(n) (“satisfaction”).
noun
- An act of atonement for a sin or wrongdoing.
- The act of expiating or stripping off.e.g.“expiation of his immanities fore.” — 1595, Samuel Daniel, “(please specify the folio number)”, in The First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke, London: […] P[eter] Short for Simon Waterson, →OCL
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.