Indulgence

How to spell indulgence

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce indulgence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does indulgence mean?

1. nounThe act of allowing oneself or another to enjoy a pleasure, or the lenient toleration of behaviour.
2. nounIn Catholic teaching, a remission of the temporal punishment owed for sins already forgiven.

Indulgence in a sentence

• A long bath with candles was her one weekly indulgence.

• The sale of an indulgence by the medieval church provoked fierce protest.

• The expensive watch felt like a reckless indulgence on his salary.

• The pilgrim travelled to the shrine hoping to receive an indulgence.

Where does indulgence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin noun indulgentia, meaning 'kindness, leniency, or a yielding to wishes', which was built on the verb indulgere, 'to be courteous, to give in to, or to grant something freely'. Roman writers used it for both gracious favour from a ruler and the softer habit of pampering oneself or others. English took the word in through Old French during the 1400s, and one of its earliest specialised uses was strictly religious: the Catholic Church granted an 'indulgence' as a remission of the punishment due for sins, and the sale of these became a famous flashpoint of the Reformation. The everyday meaning, allowing oneself or another a pleasure, grew alongside that. A useful spelling reminder is that the soft 'g' sound is written 'dg' but spelled here simply as 'g' before the -ence, and the ending is -ence, not -ance, mirroring its Latin -entia root.

How the word is built

• in- (intensive prefix)
• dulg (from Latin indulgere: to be lenient, to give oneself up to)
• -ence (noun-forming suffix)