Word.ws English Dictionary

penitant

penitant is the obsolete 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 penitant

Adjective
comparativemore penitant
superlativemost penitant
Noun
pluralpenitants

Questions about penitant

What is penitant the obsolete spelling of?
Penitant is the obsolete spelling of penitent.

Words near penitant in the dictionary

  1. peniston
  2. penistone
  3. penistones
  4. penistons
  5. penisy
  6. penitant
  7. penitants
  8. penitence
  9. penitencer
  10. penitencers
  11. penitences

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penitant (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.

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