Word.ws English Dictionary

pænitent

pænitent is the archaic spelling of penitent.

Meaning of penitent

Adjective

penitent (comparative more penitent, superlative most penitent)

  1. Feeling pain or sorrow on account of one's sins or offenses; feeling sincere guilt.
    • Be penitent, and for thy fault contrite.1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC
  2. Doing penance.
    • […] But we that know what ’tis to faſt and pray, / Are penitent for your default to day.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

See all 5 meanings of penitent

Forms of pænitent

comparativemore pænitent
superlativemost pænitent

Questions about pænitent

What is pænitent the archaic spelling of?
Pænitent is the archaic spelling of penitent.

Words near pænitent in the dictionary

  1. pædophiliacs
  2. pædophilic
  3. pænal
  4. pæninsula
  5. pænitence
  6. pænitent
  7. pænultimate
  8. pænumbra
  9. Pæonia
  10. pæonies
  11. pæony

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pænitent (page history and authors); penitent (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “pænitent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/p%C3%A6nitent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.