apology
Pluralapologies
- 1An expression of regret or remorse for having said or done something that harmed someone else.
He offered a heartfelt apology to the colleagues he had let down.
The company issued a public apology after the data breach exposed customer records.
- 2A formal written or spoken defense of a belief, position, or course of action.
The philosopher's apology for democracy ran to several hundred pages.
Critics dismissed the memoir as little more than an apology for his political career.
Similarapologia
Note
The meaning closest to the word's Greek origin: apologia, "a speech in defense," built from apo- "from, off" and logos "speech." Nothing is regretted here. The Apology of Socrates defends his conduct and admits no fault. Apologia, a doublet that came into English by a separate route, carries the same sense without the risk of being misread as the everyday "sorry" meaning.
- 3Something offered as a substitute or makeshift in place of the real thing, especially when it falls far short.
The landlord had patched the ceiling with an apology for a repair that lasted barely a week.
A few folding chairs and a card table made up the office's apology for a conference room.
Similarexcuse
Note
A sense that lives almost entirely in one construction: an apology for a hotel room, the present-day apology for coal. It is disparaging, and poor often sharpens it. Dickens has someone in Bleak House devising apologies for window curtains, and Cecil J. Allen grumbles about the coal of 1947. Keep it apart from the "defense" meaning: an apology for democracy argues for it, while an apology for a room mocks it.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of apology apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
It comes from French apologie, from Late Latin apologia, from Ancient Greek apología meaning 'a speech in defence', formed from apó ('from, off') plus lógos ('speech'). It is a doublet of apologia.