PENANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does penance mean? 

• PENANCE (noun)
  The noun PENANCE has 3 senses:

1. remorse for your past conduct

2. a Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and atonement and absolution

3. voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing

  Familiarity information: PENANCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PENANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remorse for your past conduct

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

penance; penitence; repentance

Hypernyms ("penance" is a kind of...):

compunction; remorse; self-reproach (a feeling of deep regret (usually for some misdeed))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and atonement and absolution

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("penance" is a kind of...):

sacrament (a formal religious ceremony conferring a specific grace on those who receive it; the two Protestant ceremonies are baptism and the Lord's Supper; in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church there are seven traditional rites accepted as instituted by Jesus: baptism and confirmation and Holy Eucharist and penance and holy orders and matrimony and extreme unction)

Meronyms (parts of "penance"):

absolution; remission; remission of sin; remittal (the act of absolving or remitting; formal redemption as pronounced by a priest in the sacrament of penance)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "penance"):

confession ((Roman Catholic Church) the act of a penitent disclosing his sinfulness before a priest in the sacrament of penance in the hope of absolution)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

penance; self-abasement; self-mortification

Hypernyms ("penance" is a kind of...):

penalisation; penalization; penalty; punishment (the act of punishing)

 Context examples 

She must be under some sort of penance, inflicted either by the Campbells or herself.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

From that period his penance had become severe.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

"That's done it! Stool of penance!" said he.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“It would be no great penance,” said Rosa Dartle, “for your crimes. Do you know what you have done? Do you ever think of the home you have laid waste?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Such a penance as I have been enduring, while you were sitting here so composed and so happy!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or a voluntary penance, for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal inquiries and an awkward pause and then away, but he actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Their interesting, almost too interesting conversation must be broken up for a time, but slight was the penance compared with the happiness which brought it on!

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

She went to Mrs. Goddard's accordingly the very next day, to undergo the necessary penance of communication; and a severe one it was.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Poor Julia, the only one out of the nine not tolerably satisfied with their lot, was now in a state of complete penance, and as different from the Julia of the barouche-box as could well be imagined.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The others returned, the room filled again, benches were reclaimed and repossessed, and another hour of pleasure or of penance was to be sat out, another hour of music was to give delight or the gapes, as real or affected taste for it prevailed.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)