Word.ws English Dictionary

compunction

/kəmˈpʌŋk.ʃən/

compunction noun: a pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.

Noun

compunction (countable and uncountable, plural compunctions)

  1. A pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.
    • Besides, to do De Joinville justice, he felt, too, a degree of kindly compunction for the former harsh judgment entertained of one who so little deserved it; and—for there is no such thing in the human mind as an unmixed sensation—he was struck both with the spirit with which she resented, and the...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 320
    • His age—his kindness, disarmed Pen’s anger somewhat, and made Arthur feel no little compunction for the deed which he was about to do.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 70, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...

compunction meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

compunction in Tamil

மனஉறுத்தல்

compunction in Urdu

افسوس, پشیمانی

compunction in Bengali

অনুশোচনা, দ্বিধা

compunction in Malayalam

scruples, misgivings, qualms
പശ്ചാത്താപം, ധർമ്മബോധം, ധർമ്മശങ്ക, സന്ദേഹം, ധർമ്മസന്ദേഹം, വിസൂരിതം
More languagesFewer languages
compunction in Kannada
ತಪ್ಪೆಸಗಿದರಿಮೆ, ಅಳುಕು, ಮನದಳುಕು, ಶಂಕೆ
compunction in Arabic
نَدَم nadam, وَخَز الضَّمِير waḵaz aḍ-ḍamīr

Examples of compunction in a sentence

  • [H]e would have had no compunction whatever in flinging him out of the highest window in Venice into the deepest water of the city.1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Something Right Somewhere”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857...
  • I felt no compunction in doing so, for under the circumstances I felt that I should protect myself in every way I could.1897, Bram Stoker, “Jonathan Harker’s Journal—Continued”, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter III, page 36:
  • But he felt, later, a little compunction.1920 November 9, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter VIII, in Women in Love, New York, N.Y.: Privately printed [by Thomas Seltzer] for...
  • As for average U.S. consumers, they've shown little compunction about buying diamonds that fund bloody militias in Africa.2003 February 16, Blaine Greteman, “No Peace Dividend”, in Time:

Synonyms of compunction

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of compunction

Forms of compunction

pluralcompunctions

Origin of compunction

From Middle English compunccion, borrowed from Old French compunction, from Late Latin compunctionem (“a pricking”), from Latin compunctus, the past participle of compungere (“to severely prick”), from com- + pungere (“to prick”).

Words formed from compunction

Words that rhyme with compunction

Questions about compunction

What does compunction mean?
Compunction means a pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.
What is compunction in Tamil?
Compunction in Tamil is மனஉறுத்தல். See Compunction meaning in Tamil.
How do you use compunction in a sentence?
[H]e would have had no compunction whatever in flinging him out of the highest window in Venice into the deepest water of the city.
What part of speech is compunction?
Compunction is a noun.
How do you pronounce compunction?
Compunction is pronounced /kəmˈpʌŋk.ʃən/.
What is the plural of compunction?
The plural of compunction is compunctions.

Words near compunction in the dictionary

  1. compulsory purchase
  2. compulsory purchase order
  3. compulsory purchase orders
  4. compulsoryness
  5. compunct
  6. compunction
  7. compunctionless
  8. compunctions
  9. compunctious
  10. compunctiously
  11. compunctiousness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compunction (page history and authors); compunction (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); compunction (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); compunction (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); compunction (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); compunction (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-compunction.ogg.

Cite this entry: “compunction.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/compunction. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.