DictionaryAI

apologize

verb
USuh-PAH-luh-jyz/əˈpɑləd͡ʒaɪz/uh-PO-luh-jyz/əˈpɒləd͡ʒaɪz/

Formsapologizes, apologizing, apologized

UK spellingapologise

3 meanings of apologize

Practice

  1. 1
    admit faultverbintransitive
    To acknowledge a fault or offense and express regret for it, often as a way of making amends.

    The minister apologized publicly for the department's handling of the crisis.

    You should apologize to them before the situation gets any worse.

    Note

    Two prepositions do most of the work here, and either can stand alone: for names the offense (apologized for not answering a letter), to names the person wronged (apologize to my co-workers). Together they usually run to whom, then for what: apologize to them for the delay. Behind the word sits Greek apologia, "a speech in defense," from apo- "off" and logos "speech"; the "defend" meaning still keeps that older sense.

  2. 2
    regret what happenedverbintransitive
    To express regret that a particular event has taken place.

    The airline apologized that the flight had been delayed by six hours.

    I apologize that you had to wait so long for a reply.

    Similarregret

    Note

    Here the regret attaches to an event rather than to a fault the speaker owns up to. Unlike the fault-owning sense, this one confesses nothing, so it can sound politer than it is. Regretting that something happened is not the same as taking responsibility for it, and listeners often notice the difference.

  3. 3
    defend a beliefverbdatedintransitive
    To make a formal defense of a belief, doctrine, or person; to act as an apologist.
    To this purpose the most witty, cautious and subtile ſort of the Pagans apologize for themselves
    1660, H[enry] More, An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness
    Note

    A dated use that stays closest to the Greek: to speak in defense, as an apologist does, with no regret involved. Henry More, in 1660, writes that the subtlest Pagans "apologize for themselves," meaning they argue their own case. The construction looks identical to the everyday sense, so a modern reader can mistake such a line for contrition. In current prose, defend or argue for is the clearer choice.

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Origin

Formed from "apology" plus the suffix "-ize." "Apology" comes from Greek ἀπολογία (apología, "a speech in defense"), related to ἀπολογέομαι (apologéomai, "to speak in one's defense") and ἀπόλογος (apólogos, "an account, story"), a compound of ἀπο- (apo-, "from, off") and λόγος (lógos, "speech").