expiatory

1. 1.

   having power to atone for or offered by way of expiation or propitiation

   “expiatory (or propitiatory) sacrifice”

   Synonymsexpiativepropitiatory

Questions about expiatory

What does expiatory mean?

expiatory means "having power to atone for or offered by way of expiation or propitiation".

How many syllables are in expiatory?

expiatory has 5 syllables: ex-pi-a-to-ry. The stress falls on "a".

What is another word for expiatory?

Close synonyms include expiative, propitiatory. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is expiatory a common word?

expiatory is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.