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[pahr-dn] /ˈpɑr dn/

noun
1.
kind indulgence, as in forgiveness of an offense or discourtesy or in tolerance of a distraction or inconvenience:
I beg your pardon, but which way is Spruce Street?
2.
Law.

3.
forgiveness of a serious offense or offender.
4.
Obsolete. a papal indulgence.
verb (used with object)
5.
to make courteous allowance for or to excuse:
Pardon me, madam.
6.
to release (a person) from liability for an offense.
7.
to remit the penalty of (an offense):
The governor will not pardon your crime.
interjection
8.
(used, with rising inflection, as an elliptical form of I beg your pardon, as when asking a speaker to repeat something not clearly heard or understood.)
/ˈpɑːdən/
verb (transitive)
1.
to excuse or forgive (a person) for (an offence, mistake, etc): to pardon someone, to pardon a fault
noun
2.
forgiveness; allowance
3.

4.
a Roman Catholic indulgence
sentence substitute
5.
Also pardon me, I beg your pardon

adj.

mid-15c., from Old French pardonable (12c.), from pardoner (see pardon (v.)). Related: Pardonably.
n.

late 13c., “papal indulgence,” from Old French pardon, from pardoner “to grant; forgive” (11c., Modern French pardonner), “to grant, forgive,” from Vulgar Latin *perdonare “to give wholeheartedly, to remit,” from Latin per- “through, thoroughly” (see per) + donare “give, present” (see donation).

Meaning “passing over an offense without punishment” is from c.1300, also in the strictly ecclesiastical sense; sense of “pardon for a civil or criminal offense; release from penalty or obligation” is from late 14c. earlier in Anglo-French. Weaker sense of “excuse for a minor fault” is attested from 1540s.
v.

mid-15c., “to forgive for offense or sin,” from Old French pardoner (see pardon (n.)).

‘I grant you pardon,’ said Louis XV to Charolais, who, to divert himself, had just killed a man; ‘but I also pardon whoever will kill you.’ [Marquis de Sade, “Philosophy in the Bedroom”]

Related: Pardoned; pardoning. Pardon my French as exclamation of apology for obscene language is from 1895.

the forgiveness of sins granted freely (Isa. 43:25), readily (Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86:5), abundantly (Isa. 55:7; Rom. 5:20). Pardon is an act of a sovereign, in pure sovereignty, granting simply a remission of the penalty due to sin, but securing neither honour nor reward to the pardoned. Justification (q.v.), on the other hand, is the act of a judge, and not of a sovereign, and includes pardon and, at the same time, a title to all the rewards and blessings promised in the covenant of life.

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