Other forms: apologized, apologizes, apologizing
To apologise is to say you are sorry for something you did. Apologise to her, apologise for being late, he refused to apologise.
The pattern is fixed and worth drilling: apologise to a person for a thing. Apologise somebody is wrong, and so is apologise about. In speech, say sorry is far commoner and less formal; apologise is what you do in writing, in public, and when the matter is serious. Note the spelling — apologise in British English, apologize in American, with Oxford style preferring -ize — and that the noun is apology, which drops the s or z question entirely.
1verbapologizeTo say you are sorry for something you did.
“He apologised to the whole team.”
synonyms: say sorry, express regret
2verbcannotTo say formally that you cannot attend.
“Two members apologised for absence.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
apologize is a way of expressing regret.
Also accepted in games: apologise, say sorry
An apology was a defence, not an admission. Greek apologia is a speech, logos, made in answer to a charge, from apo, off or from. Saying sorry is the newer meaning by a long way.
French
apologie
English
apology
English, today
apologize
Built from
From apology + ize, from ἀπολογία (“a speech in defense”), from ἀπολογέομαι (“to speak in one’s defense”), from ἀπόλογος (“an account, story”), compound of ἀπο- (“from, off”) and λόγος (“speech”); compare also ἀπολογίζομαι (“to render an account”). apology Borrowed from French apologie. From French apologie, from Latin apologia, from Ancient Greek ἀπολογία (“a speech in defence”), from ἀπολογοῦμαι (“I speak in my defense”), from ἀπόλογος (“an account, story”), from ἀπό (“from, off”) (see apo-) + λόγος (“speech”). a doublet of apologia. by surface analysis, apo- + -logy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA