penance

American  

[pen-uhns] / ˈpɛn əns /

noun

1. a punishment undergone in token of penitence for sin.

2. a penitential discipline imposed by church authority.

3. a sacrament, as in the Roman Catholic Church, consisting in a confession of sin, made with sorrow and with the intention of amendment, followed by the forgiveness of the sin.

---

penance British  

/ ˈpɛnəns /

noun

1. voluntary self-punishment to atone for a sin, crime, etc

2. a feeling of regret for one's wrongdoings

3. Christianity

   1. a punishment usually consisting of prayer, fasting, etc, undertaken voluntarily as an expression of penitence for sin

   2. a punishment of this kind imposed by church authority as a condition of absolution

---

verb

1. (tr) (of ecclesiastical authorities) to impose a penance upon (a sinner)

penance Cultural  

1. Acts done to make up for sin. (See confession and indulgence.)

---

Other Word Forms

• penanceless adjective

Etymology

Origin of penance

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English penaunce, from Anglo-French; Old French peneance, from Latin paenitentia penitence

Explanation

Penance is the act of doing a good deed to make up for past wrongs. Shoveling your neighbor's sidewalk all winter could be your penance for not helping rake the leaves that dropped from your tree into his yard during the fall. Although the noun penance can mean any remorse for past mistakes, or any voluntary action meant to right the wrong, Penance, with a capital P, also specifically refers to a sacrament in the Catholic Church. When a person receives Penance, he or she confesses sins to a priest, and along with a blessing, receives an order to do something, such as say certain prayers. This assignment is also called penance.

Example Sentences

Islamic fasting is oriented toward submission to divine will, while Christian penance is animated by gratitude for the incarnate God who suffered, died and rose again for the salvation of humanity.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026

Williams’ Anna absorbs his fury as though it were the penance she herself would mete out for her sins.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025

Concluding that Didion left these pages behind so they would eventually take shape as the penance of an unreliable narrator is surely too tidy.

From Salon • Jun. 14, 2025

Mr Sloan said he later built the cathedral at Inch Abbey as "an act of penance" and made that into a Cistercian monastery.

From BBC • Apr. 20, 2025

Sometimes I play with the fantasy that I am a princess who, in penance for some tiny transgression, has undertaken to feed each of her subjects by hand.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich

Related Words

• absolution
• atonement
• contrition
• forgiveness
• penitence
• remorse
• repentance
• retribution