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to reconcile

to reconcile

27 5.8
To accept something unpleasant that you cannot change
  • verb
  • /ˈrɛkənˌsaɪl/
translation icon : aceptar
  • It's just hard to reconcile the woman with her past.
  • unable to reconcile
  • difficult to reconcile
  • struggled to reconcile

Once one thing goes, you start reconciling yourself with tossing out lots of things.

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Examples

  • So at the finish, you must reconcile yourself... ...to failure.

  • Are you reconciled with your own history?

  • You need to just go home and just reconcile with your dad.

  • I cannot reconcile all this with the world I know.

  • D.J. closed her eyes and tried to reconcile this with her own image of herself.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • And how can I reconcile my inability to do so with Scripture?

  • So I had to really reconcile with myself that I had to pivot from this thing that they wanted me to be to who I knew me to be.

  • I've spent so much time reconciling with the fact that I would never see her again.

  • Of course, part of being human may well be having difficulty reconciling ourselves to our finitude.

    Academic text (2003)
  • After years of conflict, she finally learned to reconcile with her past mistakes.

Synonyms

to accept
vsto reconcile
3.5

To tolerate an unpleasant situation without complaining

involves an active mental settling with what cannot change
to live with
vsto reconcile
563 3.9

To accept something unpleasant that you cannot change

stresses a conscious emotional settling with the situation rather than mere tolerance
to put up with
vsto reconcile
288 4.3

To accept something unpleasant without complaining

involves mentally accepting the situation, not just enduring it silently
to submit
vsto reconcile
187 4.1

To accept another person's control, often against your wishes

involves personal mental acceptance rather than forced or authority-driven submission
to come to terms
vsto reconcile
83 4.1

To accept a difficult situation or agree with someone after talking

is a concise verb form expressing that same eventual acceptance
to come to terms with
vsto reconcile
76 4.1

To accept a difficult or unpleasant situation

is the single word, often more formal, for that same accepting process
to resign
vsto reconcile
52 5.1

Accept an unpleasant situation you cannot change

emphasizes internal acceptance rather than passive yielding to outside forces
to face the music
vsto reconcile
  • Informal
19 4.5

Accept and deal with unpleasant results or criticism for something you did

covers broader acceptance of any unpleasant fact, not only personal consequences
to face the truth
vsto reconcile
16 3.7

Accept real facts even when they are painful

goes further by indicating full emotional acceptance, not only acknowledgment
to grin and bear it
vsto reconcile
  • Informal
5 6.8

To accept an unpleasant situation without complaining

focuses on inward acceptance rather than only hiding complaint or emotion

Antonyms

839 1.9

Refuse to accept someone or something

How Accepting

to embrace
390 3.9
to reconcile
27 5.8
to accept
1.3
to deny
2.0
to resist
311 2.2

Surface Forms

reconcile infinitive
reconciling present participle
reconciles third person singular
reconciled past
reconciled past participle

Morphology

reconcile = re + concile

Although the form begins with the familiar prefix 're-', the root 'concile' is not a standalone English word and the meaning 'accept or come to terms with' cannot be reliably derived by a learner from the apparent parts.

Etymology

Reconcile comes from Latin parts re- 'again' and conciliare 'bring together', like a council that makes people agree. A helpful way to remember the sense 'accept' is to imagine 'bringing your feelings back into agreement' with what happened, so you finally accept it.