penalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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penalizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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penalized,
past participle, past
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penalizing
present participle
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to subject to a penalty, as a person.
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to declare (an action, deed, etc.) punishable by law or rule.
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to put under a disadvantage or handicap.
verb
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to impose a penalty on (someone), as for breaking a law or rule
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to inflict a handicap or disadvantage on
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sport to award a free stroke, point, or penalty against (a player or team)
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to declare (an act) legally punishable; make subject to a penalty
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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overpenalizationnoun
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penalizationnoun
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overpenalizeverb (used with object)
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repenalizeverb (used with object)
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nonpenalizedadjective
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penalizableadjective
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unpenalizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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penalizesimple
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penalizessimple
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have penalizedperfect
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has penalizedperfect
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am penalizingprogressive
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are penalizingprogressive
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is penalizingprogressive
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have been penalizingperfect progressive
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has been penalizingperfect progressive
Past
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penalizedsimple
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had penalizedperfect
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was penalizingprogressive
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were penalizingprogressive
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had been penalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of penalize
Explanation
When you penalize someone, you punish them. A traffic cop will usually penalize a speeder with an expensive ticket. A court might penalize a criminal with fines or time in prison, while a frustrated teacher is more likely to penalize the class clown with detention. Sports referees frequently penalize players by allowing the opposing team an advantage of some sort, like a penalty kick in soccer or a free throw in basketball. Penalize is rooted in penal, or "pertaining to punishment." The Greek root is poine, "penalty, punishment, or blood money."
Vocabulary lists containing penalize
Game Changer
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New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), 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.
See Examples For:
U.S. officials typically only move to penalize banks if they discover a significant failure to implement a sanctions-compliance program and police transactions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Lenders legally cannot penalize you for paying off your loan early, however.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
Any talk of changing the rules, salary cap or otherwise, to put reins on this kind of success would propagate underperformance and penalize this fascinating culture of constant improvement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Fidelity Brokerage Services—one of the five brokers allocated retail shares of the IPO—will penalize investors who sell their SpaceX stock within 15 calendar days of the stock’s debut, according to the firm’s website External link.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
“I own the original patent for making patent leather, ” Fletcher said in a patent lie. penalize.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
Lockwood hears from parents who wonder if saving for college penalizes them when it comes to financial aid.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 28, 2026
AI rewards those with judgment, domain knowledge and machine output; it penalizes those in rigidly designed jobs, such as narrowly scripted clerical or call-center work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 28, 2026
This penalizes players who enter the transfer portal and leave.
From Salon ● Dec. 30, 2024
One of the bills, AB1836, prohibits and penalizes the making and distribution of a deceased person’s digital replica without permission from their estate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2024
The infant mortality is lowest among the children of young mothers between twenty and twenty-five years of age, though it has been found out that "delay in child-bearing after that age penalizes the children."
From Health Through Will Power by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
The Rams were penalized 13 times for 91 yards, including several critical calls against them in the final minutes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
Even in cases where regulators found that companies endangered workers or committed multiple violations, few were penalized for all their citations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
People who sell to lower- and moderate-income consumers are getting penalized by their customers in some cases for raising prices, but they’re still willing to try, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
The NBA penalized the Los Angeles Clippers for violating salary-cap rules by facilitating outside payments to star player Kawhi Leonard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
The guide notes that agency ratings and funding are tied to whether they are “adopting and implementing effective applicant screening,” a clear signal that agencies may be penalized for not cleaning house.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
The campaign included sanctions penalizing foreign entities that helped Iran, cutting them off from the U.S.-led global financial system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
“Meta still has the most call optionality, where the market is penalizing them for the spend and not giving them credit for potential revenue from the spend,” he wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
Policies shouldn’t be focused on convincing or penalizing the intentionally child-free.
From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2026
Vice President JD Vance met with South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok in Washington last week and warned him against penalizing U.S. tech firms including Coupang, the people said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
In Tennessee there is a special statute penalizing combinations to raise the price of coal, a statute with good old precedents in early English legislation.
From Popular Law-making by Frederic Jesup Stimson
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.
