Antonym question: In the following question, select the word opposite in meaning to Extenuate from the given options.

Introduction / Context:
This question asks you to select the word opposite in meaning to Extenuate. The word Extenuate is often used in legal or moral contexts where someone tries to make an offence or mistake seem less serious. Knowing its meaning and antonyms helps in understanding argumentative and persuasive texts.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- Target word: Extenuate.
- Options: Strengthen, Enfeeble, Abate, Acquit, Lessen.
We assume that the exam is using the common sense of the verb extenuate as to make something seem less serious or to reduce its apparent severity.

Concept / Approach:
Extenuate means to make an offence, fault, or problem seem less serious by providing excuses or by downplaying it. In a broader sense, it is similar to mitigate or lessen. Therefore, an antonym must express the idea of making something more serious, stronger, or more severe. Among the options, Strengthen best captures the opposite idea, especially in the sense of strengthening a charge or strengthening the impression of seriousness. The other options mostly express weakening or lessening and are therefore closer to synonyms.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Define Extenuate: to reduce the apparent seriousness of an offence or to make something seem less severe. Step 2: Examine Strengthen. This means to make stronger, more forceful, or more intense. Step 3: Examine Enfeeble. This means to make weak or feeble, which is similar to reducing strength. Step 4: Examine Abate. This means to reduce in amount, degree, or intensity, also similar to lessening. Step 5: Examine Acquit. This means to declare someone not guilty of a criminal charge, which is related to judgment, not to the degree of seriousness of an act. Step 6: Examine Lessen. This directly means to reduce in size, degree, or importance and is a near synonym of Extenuate. Step 7: Since Extenuate is about reducing seriousness, the opposite idea of strengthening the seriousness or impact is most clearly expressed by Strengthen.

Verification / Alternative check:
Consider example sentences: The lawyer attempted to extenuate the client's guilt by pointing to difficult childhood circumstances. The opposite situation would be The lawyer attempted to strengthen the case against the client by highlighting every damaging fact. Here, extenuate softens the perception of guilt, while strengthen intensifies it. Words like Enfeeble, Abate, and Lessen also move in the direction of reducing strength or severity and so are closer to Extenuate rather than opposite to it.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
- Enfeeble: Means to make weak, which is similar in direction to making something less strong or serious.

- Abate: Means to become less intense or to reduce, again aligning with the sense of lessening.
- Acquit: Means to declare not guilty, which may remove guilt entirely but does not reflect the opposite of trying to reduce seriousness; it is a different legal act.
- Lessen: Directly means to reduce; this is almost a synonym of Extenuate rather than an antonym.

Common Pitfalls:
Candidates may choose Acquit because it is a legal term that appears near Extenuate in some contexts, but the relationship is not one of direct opposition. Others may be distracted by words that simply involve weakness or reduction without considering the direction of meaning. Remember that antonym questions demand the word that moves the idea in the opposite direction. Since Extenuate reduces the impression of seriousness, its antonym should increase or strengthen that impression.

Final Answer:
Correct option: Strengthen.