blame vs excuse

blame

verb
  • To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame, to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative). 

  • To censure (someone or something); to criticize. 

  • To assert the cause of some bad event. 

noun
  • Culpability for something negative or undesirable. 

  • A source control feature that can show which user was responsible for a particular portion of the source code. 

  • Censure. 

  • Responsibility for something meriting censure. 

excuse

verb
  • To provide an excuse for; to explain, with the aim of alleviating guilt or negative judgement. 

  • To forgive; to pardon. 

  • To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for. 

  • To allow to leave, or release from any obligation. 

noun
  • Explanation designed to avoid or alleviate guilt or negative judgment; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault. 

  • A defense to a criminal or civil charge wherein the accused party admits to doing acts for which legal consequences would normally be appropriate, but asserts that special circumstances relieve that party of culpability for having done those acts. 

  • An example of something that is substandard or of inferior quality. 

How often have the words blame and excuse occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )