Penalties

How to spell penalties

9 letters · 3 syllables

4 of the 32 people asked to spell penalties in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce penalties

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does penalties mean?

1. nounPunishments, fines, or disadvantages imposed for breaking a rule, law, or agreement.
2. nounSanctions or scoring chances awarded against a team or player for breaking the rules of a game.

Penalties in a sentence

• The contract lists strict penalties for late delivery.

• The match was decided by penalties after extra time.

• Early withdrawal from the savings account triggers heavy penalties.

• The referee called several penalties against the home side.

Where does penalties come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin poena, which meant 'punishment' or 'penalty' and itself was borrowed from the Greek poine, meaning 'blood-money' or 'retribution paid for a wrong'. From poena, medieval Latin formed poenalis, 'relating to punishment', which passed through Old French as penalite before entering English in the fifteenth century. The singular 'penalty' first described a punishment imposed by law, and the plural 'penalties' came to cover any range of fines, sanctions, or disadvantages suffered for breaking a rule. The same poena root survives in 'pain', 'punish', and 'subpoena', which literally meant 'under penalty'. A useful spelling note: the noun keeps a single 'l' and turns the final 'y' into 'ies' for the plural, so it is 'penalties', never 'penality' or 'penaltys'.

How the word is built

• pen- (from Latin poena: punishment)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ty (noun suffix)
• -es (plural)