atone
uh-TOHN
/əˈtoʊn/
To make amends or reparation for a wrong, offense, or injury.
Atone implies taking active, often difficult steps to balance the scales of a past mistake, rather than just feeling bad about it.
The story behind the word. The word atone is a rare English invention made by squeezing two simple words together: 'at' and 'one'. In the 16th century, to 'at-one' meant to bring two discordant parties into harmony—literally making them 'at one' again. Over time, the pronunciation shifted, and it became a single verb meaning to make up for a mistake.
Word relationships
- expiate: Expiate is highly formal and often carries religious or ritualistic overtones of cleansing guilt.
- redress: Redress focuses on correcting an imbalance or compensating for a loss, often in a legal or systemic sense.
- offend: Offend means to commit a displeasure or crime, creating the initial debt that atonement seeks to pay.
Commonly confused with
- amend: To amend is to alter or improve a document or behavior; to atone is to make up for a specific moral failure.
Word family
- atonement (noun): The act of making amends or reparation for a wrong.
Collocations
- atone for sins
- atone for past mistakes
- attempt to atone
Example sentences
- "He spent the rest of his life trying to atone for his youthful mistakes by helping the poor." A classic literary example of seeking redemption.
- "The novel explores a lifelong attempt to atone for a devastating childhood lie." From Ian McEwan's famous novel exploring guilt and reparation.
Memory hook
Think of 'atone' as trying to get back to being 'at one' with someone you hurt. Atone = At + One.
When not to use
Do not use for simple, everyday corrections like fixing a typo or paying a small bill.
Fun facts
- Atone is one of the very few English verbs of theological importance that is purely Germanic/English in origin rather than borrowed from Latin or Greek.
Also appears in
Take your vocabulary further with LangBlitz
Our English vocabulary app: FSRS spaced repetition, 5,000+ curated words across 119 topic groups, CEFR A1 to C2. Explore your mastery with the beautiful Vocabulary World feature.