Noun: penitence
| Singular | penitence |
| Plural | penitences |
Sample Sentences
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an assassin who misses his aim and flounders into penitence much as that discomfortable drama misses its point and stumbles into vacuity [1886, Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Age of Shakespeare, John Webster:]
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As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror. [1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 105:]
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Away, Remorse! / Compunction, hence!. / Go, Moral Force! / Go, Penitence! [1887, W. S. Gilbert, Ruddigore, Act II:]
Nouns inflected like penitence
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
First attested circa 13th century, from Middle English penitence, from Old French penitence, from Latin paenitentia (“repentance, penitence”), from paenitēns (“penitent”), present active participle of paeniteō (“regret, repent”). Equivalent to penitent + -ence. Doublet of penance. See: Middle English Nouns '
penitence', Latin Nouns '
paenitentia'.