Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Extenuation

Extenuation , noun

[Latin extenuatio: compare French exténuation.]

The act of extenuating or the state of being extenuated; the act of making thin, slender, or lean, or of palliating; diminishing, or lessening; palliation, as of a crime; mitigation, as of punishment.
To listen... to every extenuation of what is evil. — I. Taylor