Word of the Day Archive
Friday April 21, 2000
expiate \EK-spee-ayt\ , transitive verb:
To make amends for; to atone for.
Then his devout and long-suffering widow, a princess born, built a beautiful church on the estate to expiate his sins.
-- Serge Schmemann, Echoes of a Native Land
And if you have offended each other, you expiate your sins and offenses by confessing them and apologizing.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope
The characters often attempt, however futilely, to expiate their past mistakes.
-- Michael Ruhlman, "A Writer at His Best.", New York Times, September 20, 1987
Expiate comes from Latin expiare, from ex-, here used intensively, + piare, to seek to appease by an offering, to make good, to atone for, from pius, dutiful.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for expiate
