Word.ws English Dictionary

penalise

penalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of penalize.

Meaning of penalize

Verb

penalize (third-person singular simple present penalizes, present participle penalizing, simple past and past participle penalized)

  1. (transitive) To subject to a penalty, especially for the infringement of a rule or regulation.
    • Women should not be penalized or forced out of the workplace simply because they become pregnant. UPS, in fact, has come around to that position. It now offers light-duty accommodations to pregnant women who need them.2014 December 3, Editorial Board, “Supreme Court should affirm the rights of pregnant workers”, in The Los Angeles Times
  2. (transitive) To impose a handicap on.

Forms of penalise

third-person singular presentpenalises
present participlepenalising
past participlepenalised
pastpenalised

Origin of penalise

From penal + -ise.

Words formed from penalise

Questions about penalise

What is penalise the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of?
Penalise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of penalize.

Words near penalise in the dictionary

  1. penal substitution
  2. penal-industrial complex
  3. Penaldo
  4. penalisation
  5. penalisations
  6. penalise
  7. penalised
  8. penalises
  9. penalising
  10. penalism
  11. penalities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penalise (page history and authors); penalize (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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Cite this entry: “penalise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/penalise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.