justify

Academic Word List, sublist 3.

About 12.57 uses per million words.

Meaning

verb To provide an acceptable explanation for.
How can you justify spending so much money on clothes?
verb To be a good reason behind a normally-unacceptable action; to warrant.
Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.
verb To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned.
The text will look better justified.
verb To absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin.
verb To give reasons for one’s actions; to make an argument to prove that one is in the right.
She felt no need to justify herself for deciding not to invite him.
verb To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
verb To show (a person) to have had a sufficient legal reason for an act that has been made the subject of a charge or accusation.
verb To qualify (oneself) as a surety by taking oath to the ownership of sufficient property.