Meanings
comparative more exonerative · superlative most exonerative
- exonerating; tending to exonerate.
1 more example
Journalist Radley Balko has coined the term “exonerative tense” for […] language structures [specifically designed to diminish the central, active role of police officers in the killings] to highlight their apparent aim of dampening negative judgments about the appropriateness of the officers’ actions.
2025 January 24, Jonathan Moreno-Medina, Aurelie Ouss, Patrick Bayer, Bocar A. Ba, “Officer-Involved: The Media Language of Police Killings”, in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, →DOISynonyms: disculpatory, exculpatory, vindicatory, absolutionary, absolutory, absolving, exculpatory, disculpatory
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveexonerating; tending to exonerate.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiveproviding absolution
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
exonerative. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exonerative
“exonerative.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exonerative. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “exonerative,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exonerative.
Source: exonerative on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.