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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

forgiveness.

The action of forgiving.

11 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/fəˈɡɪvnəs/Received-Pronunciation/fɚˈɡɪvnəs/General-American
  1. The action of forgiving.

    uncountable · usually
    He begged for forgiveness after being caught stealing from the shop.
  2. A readiness to forgive.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *pér Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *pró Proto-Indo-European *pro- Proto-Germanic *fra- Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ- Proto-Germanic *gebaną ▲ Late Latin perdōnōcalq. Proto-Germanic *fragebaną Old English forġiefan Proto-Germanic *-in- Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti Proto-Germanic *-ōną Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Old English forġiefnes Middle English forgiveness English forgiveness From Middle English forgiveness, forgifnes, from Old English forġiefnes. By surface analysis, forgive + -ness. Cognate with Dutch vergiffenis.

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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.