Library / English Dictionary

PENITENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remorse for your past conduct

Synonyms:

penance; penitence; repentance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("penitence" is a kind of...):

compunction; remorse; self-reproach (a feeling of deep regret (usually for some misdeed))

Derivation:

penitent (feeling or expressing remorse for misdeeds)

penitential (showing or constituting penance)

penitentiary (used for punishment or reform of criminals or wrongdoers)

Credits

 Context examples: 

What an evening, when Mrs. Crupp, coming in to take away the broth-basin, produced one kidney on a cheese-plate as the entire remains of yesterday's feast, and I was really inclined to fall upon her nankeen breast and say, in heartfelt penitence, Oh, Mrs. Crupp, Mrs. Crupp, never mind the broken meats!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Nor can I truly say that I wearied of this beneficent and innocent life; I think instead that I daily enjoyed it more completely; but I was still cursed with my duality of purpose; and as the first edge of my penitence wore off, the lower side of me, so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl for licence.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)