Other forms: atoned, atoning, atones
To atone is to make up for something wrong you did. Atone for it, atone for his mistakes, seeking to atone.
It takes for and implies action rather than apology — atoning means doing something that goes some way to balancing the wrong. It has a strong religious sense, and the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, is the most solemn day of the Jewish year. Note that atone is literally at one: to atone is to be made at one again, which is a rare English word built from a phrase.
1verbatoneTo make up for something wrong you did.
“He volunteered at the shelter to atone for years of selfishness.”
atone is a making amends.
Atone comes from the Middle English phrase at one, meaning reconciled. It is one of very few English verbs built by fusing a preposition and a number.
Middle English
atone
English, today
atone
Built from
From atone (“reconciled”), from Middle English atone, attone, atoon (“agreed”) literally “at one”, equivalent to at + one. Compare Latin adūnō (“to unite, make one”) for the similar formation. Regarding the different phonological development of atone and one, see the note in one.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA