penal

American  

[peen-l] / ˈpin l /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or involving punishment, as for crimes or offenses.

2. prescribing punishment.

   penal laws.

3. constituting punishment.

   He survived the years of penal hardship.

4. used as a place of confinement and punishment.

   a penal colony.

5. subject to or incurring punishment.

   a penal offense.

6. payable or forfeitable as a penalty.

   a penal sum.

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penal British  

/ ˈpiːnəl /

adjective

1. of, relating to, constituting, or prescribing punishment

2. payable as a penalty

   a penal sum

3. used or designated as a place of punishment

   a penal institution

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Other Word Forms

• nonpenal adjective
• penality noun
• penally adverb
• unpenal adjective
• unpenally adverb

Etymology

Origin of penal

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin poenālis, equivalent to poen ( a ) penalty (< Greek poinḗ fine) + -ālis -al ¹

Explanation

Anything described as penal has something to do with legal punishment. Prisons are one important part of a country's penal system. Whenever you see the adjective penal, you'll know it has to do with court-ordered punishment. A government's penal code, for example, is a list of crimes and the punishments imposed for each of them. You might notice how similar penal is to the word penalty — in fact, they both stem from the same Latin word, poena, and the Greek root poine, both of which mean "punishment."

Example Sentences

Before Saturday's announcement, Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya had consistently argued that her husband was killed by poisoning while serving a prison sentence in an Arctic penal colony in 2024.

From BBC • Feb. 14, 2026

The punishment for which in Colombia is a prison sentence of between 26 to 45 years, according to the country's penal code.

From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026

Despite the many Aboriginal communities, the British deemed the place terra nullius—no one’s land—and established a penal colony, bringing diseases that drastically reduced the indigenous population.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 28, 2026

Schmidt and the company are accused of violating the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, and a section of the state penal code that prohibits wiretapping.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 20, 2025

Young African American men were the only group to experience a steep increase in joblessness between 1980 and 2000, a development directly traceable to the increase in the penal population.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

Related Words

• punitive