Word.ws English Dictionary

penitence

penitence noun: the condition of being penitent; a feeling of regret or remorse for doing wrong or sinning.

Noun

penitence (countable and uncountable, plural penitences)

  1. The condition of being penitent; a feeling of regret or remorse for doing wrong or sinning.
    • an assassin who misses his aim and flounders into penitence much as that discomfortable drama misses its point and stumbles into vacuity1886, Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Age of Shakespeare, John Webster
    • As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror.1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 105

penitence meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

penitence in Tamil

செய்தவறுக்கு வருத்தம்

penitence in Urdu

پشیمانی

penitence in Bengali

অনুতাপ, আফসোস

penitence in Malayalam

പശ്ചാത്താപം, പാപപ്രായശ്ചിത്തം
More languagesFewer languages
penitence in Indonesian
penitensi

Synonyms of penitence

All synonyms of penitence

Forms of penitence

pluralpenitences
alternative form (archaic)pænitence

Origin of penitence

First attested circa 13th century, from Middle English penitence, from Old French penitence, from Latin paenitentia (“repentance, penitence”), from paenitēns (“penitent”), present active participle of paeniteō (“regret, repent”). Equivalent to penitent + -ence. Doublet of penance.

Questions about penitence

What does penitence mean?
Penitence means the condition of being penitent; a feeling of regret or remorse for doing wrong or sinning.
What is penitence in Tamil?
Penitence in Tamil is செய்தவறுக்கு வருத்தம். See Penitence meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is penitence?
Penitence is a noun.
What is the plural of penitence?
The plural of penitence is penitences.

Words near penitence in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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