借口
jiè​kǒu HSK7

pretext

借口 jiè​kǒu
pretext noun
a reason given in justification of a course of action that is not the real reason; an excuse

这只是他不想帮忙的一个借口。

zhè zhǐ​shì tā bù xiǎng bāng​máng de yī gè jiè​kǒu.

This is just an excuse for him not wanting to help.

to excuse verb
to use something as an excuse or pretext

他借口身体不舒服，提前离开了会场。

tā jiè​kǒu shēn​tǐ bù shū​fu, tí​qián lí​kāi le huì​chǎng.

He left the meeting early on the pretext of feeling unwell.

Frequency
Movie subtitles
33.4 per million appears in 14% of films
Written text
16.5 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 5
HSK 3.0
Level 7

Cross-References

Same as

Sources
Definitions
CC-CEDICT
Frequency data
SUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)