Penal

How to spell penal

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce penal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does penal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the punishment of offenders or to the system of laws that imposes such punishment.

Penal in a sentence

• The new penal code increased sentences for repeat offenders.

• He spent two years inside a penal institution before his release.

Where does penal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin poenalis, meaning 'relating to punishment', which was built on the noun poena, 'a penalty, fine, or punishment'. The Latin poena was itself borrowed from the Greek poine, which originally meant 'blood money' or the price paid to atone for a killing, before it broadened to mean any penalty. English took the word in during the 1400s, partly through Old French penal, and used it from the start in the legal sense of laws and institutions concerned with punishment. The very same poena root still lives inside the everyday words 'penalty', 'punish', and even 'pain', since suffering and punishment were long linked ideas. Remembering that 'penalty' and 'penal' share that one Latin core helps fix the single 'n' and the plain '-al' ending rather than any doubled letters.

How the word is built

• pen- (from Latin poena: penalty, punishment)
• -al (adjective suffix: relating to)