EK-spee-ayt

Definition

(verb) To make amends for wrongdoing or sin through deliberate acts of reparation or atonement.

Example

He spent the decade after the verdict quietly expiating his role in the company’s collapse — funding the employees he’d left without pensions, one by one.

Word Origin

Expiate derives from the Latin expiare, meaning “to atone for” — built from ex- (“completely”) and piare (“to appease” or “to make pious”), itself from pius meaning “dutiful” or “devout.” The same root gives us pious and piety. It entered English in the 16th century, used almost exclusively in religious and moral contexts to describe the deliberate, active process of making right what was done wrong — not merely feeling remorse but doing something about it.