penance
pronunciation
How to pronounce penance in British English: UK [ˈpenəns]
How to pronounce penance in American English: US [ˈpɛnəns]
-
- Noun:
- remorse for your past conduct
- a Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and satisfaction and absolution
- voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing
Word Origin
- penance
- penance: see pain
- penance (n.)
- late 13c., "religious discipline or self-mortification as a token of repentance and as atonement for some sin," from Anglo-French penaunce, Old French peneance (12c.), from Latin pænitentia (see penitence). Transferred sense is recorded from c. 1300.
Example
- 1. The bank settled quickly with u.s. regulators , paying $ 100 million to the us treasury as penance .
- 2. Another penance was the drinking of milk .
- 3. He received an axe after doing penance for shiva .
- 4. Are you willing to do penance for your sins , my son ?
- 5. The chief executive has served his penance .