Forgiveness Meaning

/fəˈɡɪvnəs/
B2

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

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nounThe action of forgiving.

nounA readiness to forgive.

I asked forgiveness for the mistake I made.
She sought forgiveness for her guilty acts.
She preached to the congregation about forgiveness.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
She asked for his ____ after accidentally breaking his watch.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Asking for ____ is the first step toward healing a relationship that has been badly damaged by lies.

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.

"At the end of a week, she could bear the suspense no longer, and so went humbly to her old home and sought forgiveness." — 1850, T. S. Arthur, “Happy on a Little”, in Sketches of Life and Character, Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 89:
"It was not a war party, so it surely was men who came to ask for peace and forgiveness." — 1907, Albert Ernest Jenks, Ba-Long-Long, The Igorot Boy, page 108:
"But Oh! what anguish can more poignant be Than of the heart which vainly longs to plead Forgiveness from the dead? Shall the dead heed?" — 1913 January 26, G. E. Reece, “"The Bookman" Prize Competitions § Results of Competitions for December § Forgive!”, in The Bookman, volume XLIII, number 256:
"Some devout Christians are among the most fervent advocates of the death penalty, contradicting Jesus Christ and misinterpreting Holy Scriptures and numerous examples of mercy. We remember God’s forgiveness of Cain, who killed Abel, and the adulterer King David, who arranged the killing of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, his lover." — 2014, Jimmy Carter, “Full Prisons and Legal Killing”, in A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 39:
"If the incident in question causes you continued distress and negatively impacts your life, that’s where the f-word — forgiveness — may have a role to play, said psychologist Robert Enright, a pioneer in the field of forgiveness science and professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison." — 2023 December 10, Andrea Kane, “5 tips to help you flex your forgiveness muscle”, in CNN:

Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words

CEFR Practice Quiz
She asked for his ____ after accidentally breaking his watch.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Asking for ____ is the first step toward healing a relationship that has been badly damaged by lies.

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