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:
By the time the district agreed to shorten the punishment, he’d already served 11 days.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
There is at least one semi-recent example of the government destroying a business as punishment for corruption.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
The punishment received some criticism for being too lenient, particularly when Everton and Nottingham Forest both received points deductions in 2024 for PSR.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Prosecutors on Friday said he deserved heavy punishment.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Maggie and Kate were simply too scared of punishment or embarrassment, to admit the truth.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Blumenfield, who authored a motion to start the process, called the law, along with its punishments of a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail, “uncommonly silly.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The king of Ithaca’s pride in his ingenious trick is steadily sapped by a series of cosmic punishments.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
Divine did not say why he felt compelled to state his beliefs about permissible punishments.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026
The defendants' supporters say the punishments were unduly harsh.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
When Florida was caught breaking one of the rules, she was more likely to argue and, as a result, to earn extra punishments.
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
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.
