Punishable

How to spell punishable

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce punishable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does punishable mean?

1. adjectiveLiable to be penalised under a law, rule, or formal code.

Punishable in a sentence

• Tax fraud is a punishable offence in every jurisdiction.

• Under company policy, leaking client data is punishable by immediate dismissal.

Where does punishable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word is built on the verb 'punish', which English took from Old French 'puniss-', the stem of 'punir', meaning 'to penalise'. That French verb descended from the Latin 'punire', 'to inflict a penalty on', which itself grew from the noun 'poena', meaning 'penalty' or 'pain'. The same 'poena' root sits inside the modern words 'penalty', 'penal', and even 'pain', all of which share the idea of a price paid for wrongdoing. English added the productive suffix '-able', meaning 'liable to' or 'capable of', so 'punishable' literally describes an act that can be subjected to a penalty. The verb arrived in English in the 1300s, and the adjective form followed naturally; the spelling trap is that 'punish' keeps its full form before the suffix, giving 'punish' plus 'able' with no dropped or doubled letters.

How the word is built

• punish (from Latin punire: to penalise)
• -able (capable of, liable to)