Other forms: apologies
An apology is a statement admitting fault and asking to be forgiven. Make an apology, owe somebody an apology, a written apology.
The verb is apologise and the pattern is apologise to somebody for something. Note apologies in the plural, which is the standard formula for being unable to attend: please pass on my apologies. There is an older, formal sense that means a defence rather than a regret — an apology for the Christian faith is an argument in its favour — and it survives in apologist, which means a defender of something and is usually said with suspicion.
1nounapologyA statement saying you are sorry for something you did.
“The apology came three weeks late.”
2nounmessageA message saying you cannot attend.
“Apologies were received from four members.”
3noundefenceA formal defence of a belief or position.
“The book is an apology for a philosophy nobody now holds.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
apology is a statement of regret.
Greek apologia meant a speech in defence, made at a trial — apo-, away, plus logos, speech. Socrates' Apology is a defence and not a regret. English kept that meaning for centuries and then reversed it: an apology now admits the fault that an apologia denied.
French
apologie
English, today
apology
Built from
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