atonement
n. uncountablen. the act of doing something good to show you are sorry for a past mistake. It is a way to make up for a wrong and fix a relationship.
n. the action of making amends or reparation for a wrong or injury. Often carries a religious or moral weight, referring to the reconciliation of God and humankind through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
He spent years doing charity work as atonement for his crimes.
The protagonist seeks atonement for his childhood betrayal by returning to his war-torn homeland to save a friend's son.
The theological concept of atonement involves not merely the recognition of guilt, but a transformative process of restitution intended to restore a fractured moral order.
Perhaps from atone + -ment as translation of Medieval Latin adūnāmentum; however, the noun is found earlier than the verb (atone); and in this light, the proper etymology is at + onement.
Often followed by the preposition 'for' to indicate the specific wrong being addressed.