Words / A / Business

apologies for the delay

phrase/əˈpɒlədʒiz fə ðə dɪˈleɪ/

B1CEFR level
25/100Rarity: fairly common
TechnicalRegister

A conventional email opener acknowledging a late reply without over-explaining.

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you; I've been out of office this week.

Similar: sorry for the late reply, thanks for your patience

Topic: Business email & meetings in Business English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More business words: Business email & meetings