noun
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a penalty or sanction given for any crime or offence
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the act of punishing or state of being punished
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informal rough treatment
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psychol any aversive stimulus administered to an organism as part of training
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonpunishmentnoun
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overpunishmentnoun
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prepunishmentnoun
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repunishmentnoun
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self-punishmentnoun
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propunishmentadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of punishment
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English punysshement, from Anglo-French punisement, Old French punissement; equivalent to punish + -ment
Explanation
Punishment is the penalty you have to pay when you're caught doing something bad. A teenager's punishment for missing her curfew might be helping her dad clean the garage. When someone is officially penalized for a mistake or a crime, that's punishment. Stealing a car could result in a punishment involving jail, while pinching your little sister might mean a punishment as mild as sitting in a chair and thinking about ways to be nicer next time. The Latin root of punishment and its related verb, punish, is punire, "punish, correct, take vengeance for, or cause pain for some offense."
Vocabulary lists containing punishment
Psychology
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"Nadia the Willful"
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The House of Hades
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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:
Hollywood Park sees that as punishment for challenging the billboard deal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
To fans, that was the most consequential part of the historic punishment dealt by the NBA, which commissioned a year-long investigation that determined the Clippers committed audacious levels of salary cap circumvention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
They were there for the "adrenaline" and because they see "minimal risk" of punishment if caught, he said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
City are appealing against the verdict, meaning the severity and timing of any punishment - which could take the form of a points deduction - remain unknown.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
As punishment, his leader ordered him to run laps around a drill field.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
According to the Saudi interior ministry, the two Bangladeshi nationals were convicted and sentenced to death under "tazir", which in Islamic law refers to punishments left to the discretion of the judge.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Potential punishments range from fines and points deductions to expulsion from the league.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
It also left corporate leaders in Mexico concerned that their companies could be next, given that the order contained few details on the compliance failures that led to the punishments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Cooke added that along with standard punishments for not fulfilling a fixture, there was were also possible "undetermined" extras.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
I shudder at my delusions of charity, at my shame masquerading as virtue, at lies I’ve told myself, punishments I’ve inflicted on myself, and punishments I’ve inflicted on my mother.
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
