Justification vs. Excuse

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Is there a the difference between a justification and an excuse?

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Yes

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Is that an excuse or justification?

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Neither, it's a lie

I RA'd...

Justification: I have been banned for far less than this dribble...

There is no excuse for this thread to live further

I hated when coaches used to say "Stop making excuses!"

Situation from golf:

I miss a 6 foot putt. I say "I read it wrong"

Coach: "Stop making excuses"


WTF, thats a reason, not an excuse.

Missed a free throw

Me: "Ball rolled off my fingers wrong"

Coach: "Stop making excuses!"


WTF, that is the reason I missed. I didn't cast blame on anyone but myself.



A shitty excuse would be:

Me: "Rim has bad bounce so I didn't get my roll!"

Yes, but the definition really depends on the one who is receiving the justification/excuse. They get to decide.

In my mind, excuse is the more generic form and includes justification.

Excuse seems more equivalent to reason. It may be a good reason/excuse, a bad reason/excuse or a neutral reason/excuse. Either word can be inclusive of pretty much any scenario from any positive or negative perspective. Though excuse is more commonly used than reason if the use of the word is meant to minimize the validity of the stated reason.

What's your excuse for leaving might be answered any way:
- I got bored.
- I had to pee.
- My wife texted me that our house was robbed.

Justification, on the other hand, specifically shares the same root word as justice: just. By doing so, I think it refers specifically to a type of reason or excuse that explains an action that has moral consequence.

Ex: His justification for getting in a fight was to defend his girlfriend.

Or: They justified the invasion because of the threat of WMDs.

In hindsight, if we agree with the justification, the word sticks. If we think the party justifying their actions stretched the truth and their cause was not just, we tend to re-categorize their justification into an excuse.

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As an example, I had a friend say he lied to the pawn shop to get a free guitar by telling them I have a patient with stage 4 liver cancer because cancer took my father and I need a guitar. Is that an excuse or justification?

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As the first person to reply said, this is a lie.

The excuse he might tell you or other friends why he swindled the pawn shop might be because he really loves guitars and has no money, but the lie he told the store doesn't seem to fit the idea of an excuse at all.

If he were to have tried to obtain the guitar for free using some other means, like a fake letter from the hospital or similar, and got caught, then he might come up with an "excuse" (basically attempting to falsely create a justification) to tell the pawn shop clerk in order to not get in trouble.

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Look that was too well thought out for the OT. I'm going to have to ask you to step out.

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I reckon that's part of the reason... for being part of this site for about 10 years... I've only managed about 1800 posts.

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Excuses are like assholes.

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that's opinions buddy