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exonerate.

To relieve (someone or something) of a load; to unburden (a load).

9 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɪɡˈzɒnəɹeɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ɛɡ-/Received-Pronunciation/ɪɡˈzɑnəˌɹeɪt/General-American/ɛɡ-/General-American
  1. To relieve (someone or something) of a load; to unburden (a load).

    archaic · transitive
  2. Of a body of water: to discharge or empty (itself).

    obsolete · reflexive
  3. To free (someone) from an obligation, responsibility or task.

    transitive
  4. To free (someone) from accusation or blame.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English exoneraten (attested in past participle exonerated), from Latin exonerātus, past perfect participle of exonerō (“to discharge, unload; to exonerate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Exonerō is from ex- (“out, from”) + onerō (“to burden, lade; to load”) further from onus (oner-) (“a burden, load”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃énh₂os (“burden, load”), from *h₃enh₂- (“to charge, onerate”). Compare French exonérer.

adj/ɪɡˈzɒnəɹeɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ɛɡ-/Received-Pronunciation/ɪɡˈzɑnəˌɹeɪt/General-American/ɛɡ-/General-American
  1. Freed from an obligation; freed from accusation or blame; acquitted, exonerated.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

Learned borrowing from Latin exonerātus (more at etymology 1), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.