impenitent
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of impenitent
1525–35; < Late Latin impaenitent- (stem of impaenitēns ) unrepentant. See im- 2, penitent
Explanation
To be impenitent is to have no remorse or regrets. Your brother was impenitent when he ate the cupcakes that you had baked for your club fundraiser. Not nice. The word repent is hiding in impenitent. When you repent, you regret or feel sorry about something you've done. Impenitent and repent share the Latin root penitire meaning "to regret," but add im- meaning "not" for impenitent and you've got the opposite: "to not regret or repent." A criminal who is impenitent about feels no shame about what he's done.
Vocabulary lists containing impenitent
Antigone
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Anne of Avonlea
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Vocab Video Contest (2016) - List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In Maxwell’s impenitent gaze, we could see the broader audacity of the Epstein affair.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 16, 2019
She loved that Lorraine was impenitent and fought out of professional duty, rather than to avenge, say, the loss of a husband or child.
From New York Times • Jul. 25, 2017
But her new employer, Politico Europe, was keen to appoint an impenitent to fire warning shots across the commission’s bow.
From The Guardian • Jun. 18, 2015
“I declare myself an impenitent believer in the power of preaching,” he told an evangelical group in New York in 2006, by then a frail and stooped figure walking with a cane.
From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2011
Grimes dies impenitent, and fancying that his tormentors are about to seize him.
From Hours in a Library New Edition, with Additions. Vol. II (of 3) by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
