🇬🇧 Exonerate meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

To exonerate someone means to show that they are not guilty and did not do the bad thing people thought they did. It’s like clearing their name. First, people might think the person is to blame, but then new facts or proof appear, and everyone realizes, “Oh! You didn’t do it!” When someone is exonerated, it becomes officially known that they are innocent.

The school newspaper exonerated the lunch lady after proving the “mystery meat” was just oddly shaped chicken.

Our group decided to exonerate the alarm clock once we remembered we had never actually turned it on.

The teacher exonerated me from the crime of talking when she realized it was actually my squeaky chair making all the noise.

The teacher exonerated my math test from being wrong when she noticed she had used the answer key upside down.

History books exonerated many people who were blamed for things they didn’t do, showing how important good evidence is.

After the vase crashed, the child froze as neighbors blamed him. A phone video would exonerate him, and the video did exonerate him: it showed the cat jump and knock the vase. The clear clip seemed to exonerate him completely. Neighbors softened, ready to exonerate, eager to exonerate him and to apologize, hugging the relieved child.

This word is at the C2 level, which means it represents the highest mastery of English. It’s often used in specialized or highly formal contexts and helps you communicate with precision and subtlety, much like a native speaker.

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