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# alibi

«alibi» in Mova's school dictionary: **proof that a person was somewhere else when a crime…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (an alibi, alibis)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (law) An alibi is proof that a person was somewhere else when a crime happened, so they could not have done it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/#m1)

2) (informal) An alibi is an excuse. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In detective stories it is a key idea: the detective checks each suspect's alibi. In everyday talk it means any excuse. Phrases: a strong alibi, a cast-iron alibi, check an alibi.

### examples

- The butler had an alibi: he was at the shop. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/#x1)
- The detective checked every suspect's alibi. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/#x2)
- Her alibi was proved false by the CCTV. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/#x3)
- "I was with my gran" was his alibi. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/#x4)
- My alibi for being late was the bus. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/#x5)
- A cast-iron alibi cannot be broken. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/#x6)

### note

Countable: alibis. From Latin for "elsewhere". Said AL-i-bye.

### In the corpora

- [Giving a false alibi about where someone was can put them in danger if something goes wrong.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/29/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «alibi» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/alibi/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.