Penance

How to spell penance

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce penance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does penance mean?

1. nounA voluntary act of self-punishment or hardship undertaken to show sorrow for a wrongdoing.

Penance in a sentence

• The priest assigned a simple penance after she confessed.

• He washed every dish in the house as penance for forgetting their anniversary.

Where does penance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin paenitentia, meaning 'repentance' or 'sorrow for wrongdoing', which itself grew from paenitere, 'to cause or feel regret'. It passed into English in the early 1200s through Old French, where it appeared as penance or penaunce and carried a strongly religious sense: an act of self-punishment or devotion imposed by the Church to show contrition for sin. The same Latin root sits inside its close relatives 'penitent', 'repent', and 'penitentiary', the last of which began as a place meant to inspire reflection and remorse rather than mere confinement. Over time penance broadened beyond the confessional to describe any voluntary suffering or tedious task accepted as a way of making amends. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed final syllable, which sounds like a vague 'uhns' and tempts writers toward '-ence'; remembering its kinship with 'penitent' helps fix the 'pen' beginning.

How the word is built

• pen- (from Latin paena/paenitentia: punishment, repentance)
• -ance (noun suffix)