Word.ws English Dictionary

excusing

excusing is the present participle and gerund of excuse.

Meaning of excuse

Verb

excuse (third-person singular simple present excuses, present participle excusing, simple past and past participle excused)

  1. (transitive) To forgive; to pardon; to overlook.
    • I excused him his transgressions.
  2. (transitive) To allow to leave, or release from any obligation.
    • May I be excused from the table?
    Synonyms:
    forgive, let off the hook, let pass, pardon, unguilt
  3. (transitive) To provide an excuse for; to justify.
    • You know he shouldn't have done it, so don't try to excuse his behavior!
    Synonyms:
    plead, adduce
  4. To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for.
    • Agayne / thynke ye that we excuſe oure ſelves? we ſpeake in Chriſt in the ſight of God. But we do all thyngꝭ dearly beloved for youre edifyinge.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians xij:[19], folio ccxlvj, verso

See all 7 meanings of excuse

Noun

excusing (plural excusings)

  1. The act of making an excuse.
    • "I was fond of her," he insisted dully. "She suffered a lot on account of me." The words dropped to me through immeasurable cold space. I believe there were more explanations, excusings.1985, Mary Hunter Austin, A Woman of Genius, page 138

Forms of excusing

pluralexcusings

Phrases with excusing

Questions about excusing

What does excusing mean?
Excusing means the act of making an excuse.
What is excusing the present participle and gerund of?
Excusing is the present participle and gerund of excuse.
What part of speech is excusing?
Excusing is a noun.
What is the plural of excusing?
The plural of excusing is excusings.

Words near excusing in the dictionary

  1. excuses
  2. excuses my French
  3. excusest
  4. excuseth
  5. excusez-moi
  6. excusing
  7. excusing my French
  8. excusingly
  9. excusings
  10. excusion
  11. excusive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: excusing (page history and authors); excuse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “excusing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/excusing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.