Excuse vs. Reason: Know the Difference
By Shumaila Saeed || Updated on December 25, 2023
An excuse is a justification to avoid blame or responsibility, while a reason is a logical explanation or cause for something.
Key Differences
An excuse typically serves to justify a fault or failure, often used to avoid blame or responsibility. It can imply a lack of accountability. In contrast, a reason is a rational explanation for an action or event, indicating causality and logic.
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Dec 06, 2023
Excuses are often seen as defenses for undesirable actions or outcomes, sometimes based on false pretenses or minimal truth. Reasons, however, are rooted in factual and logical explanations that clarify circumstances or motivations.
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While an excuse can be perceived as evasive or insincere, aiming to mitigate negative perceptions, a reason tends to be more straightforward and honest, seeking to provide understanding or insight.
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Excuses often carry a negative connotation, suggesting inadequacy or unwillingness. Reasons are generally viewed more positively, as they contribute to a clearer comprehension of situations or behaviors.
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In communication, presenting an excuse may reflect an attempt to manipulate perception or elicit sympathy, whereas offering a reason is more about conveying information and facts.
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Comparison Chart
Connotation
Often negative, suggesting evasion.
Generally positive, implying logic.
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Perception
Seen as evasive or insincere.
Viewed as straightforward and honest.
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Communication Role
Aimed at mitigating blame.
Aimed at providing understanding.
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Excuse and Reason Definitions
Excuse
A plea offered in extenuation of a fault or for release from an obligation or promise.
His excuse for not completing the homework was that he forgot.
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Reason
A cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event.
The reason for the power outage was a damaged transformer.
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Excuse
To make allowance for; overlook or forgive
Please excuse the interruption.
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
The power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments logically.
She used reason rather than emotion to make her decision.
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Reason
An underlying fact or cause that provides logical sense for a premise or occurrence.
The reason he won the race was his rigorous training.
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Excuse
To apologize for (oneself) for an act that could cause offense
She excused herself for being late.
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Reason
A statement or fact that explains why something is the way it is, why someone does, thinks, or says something.
The reason for his happiness was the good news he received.
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Excuse
To explain (a fault or offense) in the hope of being forgiven or understood; try to justify
He arrived late and excused his tardiness by blaming it on the traffic.
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
The basis or motive for an action, decision, or conviction.
Her reason for choosing the course was its excellent career prospects.
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Excuse
To serve as justification for
Witty talk does not excuse bad manners.
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
The basis or motive for an action, decision, or conviction
There are good reasons to learn a foreign language. See Usage Notes at because, why.
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Oct 19, 2023
Excuse
To free, as from an obligation or duty; exempt
She was excused from jury duty because she knew the plaintiff.
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
A declaration made to explain or justify action, decision, or conviction
What reasons did she give for leaving?.
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Excuse
To give permission to leave; release
The child ate quickly and asked to be excused.
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Reason
A fact or cause that explains why something exists or has occurred
The reason for the building's collapse is unknown.
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Excuse
A reason or grounds for excusing
Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.
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Reason
The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence
"Most of us would like to believe that when we say something is right or wrong, we are using our powers of reason alone" (Carl Zimmer).
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Reason
The limit of what is reasonable
"It is a curious thing that, when a man hates or loves beyond reason, he is ready to go beyond reason to gratify his feelings" (Rudyard Kipling).
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Excuse
(Informal) An inferior example
A poor excuse for a poet.
A sorry excuse for a car.
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Reason
To determine or conclude by logical thinking
The doctor reasoned that the patient had a virus.
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Excuse
(transitive) To forgive; to pardon.
I excused him his transgressions.
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Reason
To persuade or dissuade (someone) with reasons
"You boast ... of having reasoned him out of his absurd romance" (William Makepeace Thackeray).
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Excuse
(transitive) To allow to leave, or release from any obligation.
May I be excused from the table?
I excused myself from the proceedings to think over what I'd heard.
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Reason
To use the faculty of reason; think logically
What would lead you to reason so?.
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Excuse
(transitive) To provide an excuse for; to explain, with the aim of alleviating guilt or negative judgement.
You know he shouldn't have done it, so don't try to excuse his behavior!
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Reason
To talk or argue logically and persuasively
Tried to reason with her son to eat a good breakfast.
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Excuse
To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for.
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Excuse
Explanation designed to avoid or alleviate guilt or negative judgment; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault.
Tell me why you were late – and I don't want to hear any excuses!
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Excuse
(legal) A defense to a criminal or civil charge wherein the accused party admits to doing acts for which legal consequences would normally be appropriate, but asserts that special circumstances relieve that party of culpability for having done those acts.
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Reason
That which causes something: an efficient cause, a proximate cause.
The reason this tree fell is that it had rotted.
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Excuse
An example of something that is substandard or of inferior quality.
That thing is a poor excuse for a gingerbread man. Hasn't anyone taught you how to bake?
He's a sorry excuse for a doctor.
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
A motive for an action or a determination.
The reason I robbed the bank was that I needed the money.
If you don't give me a reason to go with you, I won't.
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Oct 19, 2023
Excuse
To free from accusation, or the imputation of fault or blame; to clear from guilt; to release from a charge; to justify by extenuating a fault; to exculpate; to absolve; to acquit.
A man's persuasion that a thing is duty, will not excuse him from guilt in practicing it, if really and indeed it be against Gog's law.
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
An excuse: a thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation.
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Excuse
To pardon, as a fault; to forgive entirely, or to admit to be little censurable, and to overlook; as, we excuse irregular conduct, when extraordinary circumstances appear to justify it.
I must excuse what can not be amended.
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Oct 19, 2023
Excuse
To regard with indulgence; to view leniently or to overlook; to pardon.
And in our own (excuse some courtly stains.)No whiter page than Addison remains.
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Reason
(uncountable) Rational thinking (or the capacity for it); the cognitive faculties, collectively, of conception, judgment, deduction and intuition.
Mankind should develop reason above all other virtues.
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Excuse
To free from an impending obligation or duty; hence, to disengage; to dispense with; to release by favor; also, to remit by favor; not to exact; as, to excuse a forfeiture.
I pray thee have me excused.
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
(obsolete) Something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice.
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Excuse
To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for.
Think ye that we excuse ourselves to you?
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Excuse
The act of excusing, apologizing, exculpating, pardoning, releasing, and the like; acquittal; release; absolution; justification; extenuation.
Pleading so wisely in excuse of it.
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Excuse
That which is offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or irregular deportment; apology; as, an excuse for neglect of duty; excuses for delay of payment.
Hence with denial vain and coy excuse.
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
(intransitive) To perform a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to argue.
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Excuse
That which excuses; that which extenuates or justifies a fault.
If eyes were made for seeing.Then beauty is its own excuse for being.
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Excuse
A defense of some offensive behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.;
He kept finding excuses to stay
Every day he had a new alibi for not getting a job
His transparent self-justification was unacceptable
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Oct 19, 2023
Reason
(ambitransitive) To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss.
I reasoned the matter with my friend.
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Excuse
A note explaining an absence;
He had to get his mother to write an excuse for him
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Excuse
A poor example;
It was an apology for a meal
A poor excuse for an automobile
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Reason
(transitive) To persuade by reasoning or argument.
To reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan
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Reason
To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument.
To reason out the causes of the librations of the moon
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Excuse
Serve as a reason or cause or justification of;
Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work
Her recent divorce amy explain her reluctance to date again
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Reason
A thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; a just ground for a conclusion or an action; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation; the efficient cause of an occurrence or a phenomenon; a motive for an action or a determination; proof, more or less decisive, for an opinion or a conclusion; principle; efficient cause; final cause; ground of argument.
I'll give him reasons for it.
The reason of the motion of the balance in a wheel watch is by the motion of the next wheel.
This reason did the ancient fathers render, why the church was called "catholic."
Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for that goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness.
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Excuse
Defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning;
Rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior
He rationalized his lack of success
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Reason
The faculty or capacity of the human mind by which it is distinguished from the intelligence of the inferior animals; the higher as distinguished from the lower cognitive faculties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception, judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. Specifically, it is the intuitional faculty, or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the discursive or ratiocinative faculty.
We have no other faculties of perceiving or knowing anything divine or human, but by our five senses and our reason.
In common and popular discourse, reason denotes that power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right from wrong, and by which we are enabled to combine means for the attainment of particular ends.
Reason is used sometimes to express the whole of those powers which elevate man above the brutes, and constitute his rational nature, more especially, perhaps, his intellectual powers; sometimes to express the power of deduction or argumentation.
By the pure reason I mean the power by which we become possessed of principles.
The sense perceives; the understanding, in its own peculiar operation, conceives; the reason, or rationalized understanding, comprehends.
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Reason
Due exercise of the reasoning faculty; accordance with, or that which is accordant with and ratified by, the mind rightly exercised; right intellectual judgment; clear and fair deductions from true principles; that which is dictated or supported by the common sense of mankind; right conduct; right; propriety; justice.
I was promised, on a time,To have reason for my rhyme.
But law in a free nation hath been ever public reason; the enacted reason of a parliament, which he denying to enact, denies to govern us by that which ought to be our law; interposing his own private reason, which to us is no law.
The most probable way of bringing France to reason would be by the making an attempt on the Spanish West Indies.
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Excuse
Excuse, overlook, or make allowances for; be lenient with;
Excuse someone's behavior
She condoned her husband's occasional infidelities
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Reason
Ratio; proportion.
When anything is proved by as good arguments as a thing of that kind is capable of, we ought not, in reason, to doubt of its existence.
Yet it were great reason, that those that have children should have greatest care of future times.
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Excuse
A reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense.
He made an excuse for being late, blaming the traffic.
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Dec 06, 2023
Reason
To exercise the rational faculty; to deduce inferences from premises; to perform the process of deduction or of induction; to ratiocinate; to reach conclusions by a systematic comparison of facts.
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Excuse
A pretext or subterfuge used to evade responsibility.
She used a common cold as an excuse to avoid the meeting.
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Reason
Hence: To carry on a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to formulate and set forth propositions and the inferences from them; to argue.
Stand still, that I may reason with you, before the Lord, of all the righteous acts of the Lord.
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Excuse
An attempt to lessen the blame attaching to a fault or offense; seek to defend or justify.
He gave a weak excuse for his poor performance at work.
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Excuse
A reason given for not fulfilling an obligation.
Her excuse for missing the deadline was a lack of resources.
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Reason
To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss; as, I reasoned the matter with my friend.
When they are clearly discovered, well digested, and well reasoned in every part, there is beauty in such a theory.
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Reason
To persuade by reasoning or argument; as, to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan.
Men that will not be reasoned into their senses.
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Reason
To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons; - with down; as, to reason down a passion.
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Reason
To find by logical processes; to explain or justify by reason or argument; - usually with out; as, to reason out the causes of the librations of the moon.
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Reason
A rational motive for a belief or action;
The reason that war was declared
The grounds for their declaration
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Reason
An explanation of the cause of some phenomenon;
The reason a steady state was never reached was that the back pressure built up too slowly
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Reason
The capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination;
We are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil
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Reason
The state of having good sense and sound judgment;
His rationality may have been impaired
He had to rely less on reason than on rousing their emotions
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Reason
A justification for something existing or happening;
He had no cause to complain
They had good reason to rejoice
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Reason
A fact that logically justifies some premise or conclusion;
There is reason to believe he is lying
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Reason
Decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion;
We reasoned that it was cheaper to rent than to buy a house
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Repeatedly Asked Queries
Can an excuse be positive?
Rarely, as excuses typically imply a negative aspect.
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Dec 06, 2023
Can an excuse also be a valid reason?
Sometimes, but an excuse often carries a connotation of evasion.
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What does reason mean?
A reason is a logical explanation or cause for something.
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Dec 06, 2023
How do reasons differ from excuses in communication?
Reasons provide logical explanations, while excuses often seek to deflect blame.
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Is an excuse always false?
Not necessarily, but it can be less sincere or factual.
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Are reasons important in decision-making?
Yes, reasons are crucial for logical and informed decisions.
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Dec 06, 2023
What is an excuse?
An excuse is a justification used to mitigate blame or responsibility.
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Can an excuse be valid in some situations?
Yes, in certain situations, such as emergencies or unforeseen circumstances, a valid excuse may be appropriate.
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Can a reason be subjective?
Yes, reasons can be subjective but are generally logical.
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Why do people use excuses?
Often to avoid responsibility or negative outcomes.
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Are reasons always objective and factual?
No, reasons can also be subjective, as they may involve personal feelings or preferences.
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How should one respond to an excuse?
It depends on the situation. A polite response may involve understanding or offering assistance if needed.
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What is the difference between a valid excuse and a poor excuse?
A valid excuse is a legitimate reason for an action, while a poor excuse is often an attempt to evade responsibility.
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Dec 06, 2023
Are excuses the same as apologies?
No, excuses explain actions, while apologies express regret and accountability.
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When should someone ask for a reason?
Asking for a reason is appropriate when you want to understand the rationale behind a decision or action.
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Dec 06, 2023
Can a reason justify unethical behavior?
No, a reason should not be used to justify unethical or immoral actions.
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What is the role of reason in critical thinking?
Reason plays a crucial role in critical thinking by helping individuals make informed, logical decisions based on evidence and sound judgment.
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About Author
Written by
Shumaila SaeedShumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.
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