preapologize
preapologize verb: to apologize in advance; to make an apology before the fact.
Verb
preapologize (third-person singular simple present preapologizes, present participle preapologizing, simple past and past participle preapologized)
- To apologize in advance; to make an apology before the fact.
- Newman was so ashamed of the film, he took out an ad in the Los Angeles Times to pre-apologize to television viewers on the eve of its late-night showing.1989 Oct, Robert Cetti Jr, “Detour: What Drives Paul Newman?”, in Orange Coast Magazine, page 72
- The second example, a cartoon, shows a husband announcing to his wife, that he wants to pre-apologize before going out for the evening. Despite the humor involved in the idea of “pre-apologizing,” I do not believe that a person can meaningfully apologize before the event.2004, Aaron Lazare, On Apology, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 171
Forms of preapologize
| third-person singular present | preapologizes |
|---|---|
| present participle | preapologizing |
| past participle | preapologized |
| past | preapologized |
| alternative form | pre-apologize |
Origin of preapologize
From pre- + apologize.
Questions about preapologize
- What does preapologize mean?
- Preapologize means to apologize in advance; to make an apology before the fact.
- What part of speech is preapologize?
- Preapologize is a verb.
- What is the past tense of preapologize?
- The past tense of preapologize is preapologized.
Words near preapologize in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: preapologize (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “preapologize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/preapologize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
