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penitent

[pen-i-tuhnt]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

feeling or expressing sorrow for sin or wrongdoing and disposed to atonement and amendment; repentant; contrite.

noun

a penitent person.

Roman Catholic Church. a person who confesses sin and submits to a penance.

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Penitent is a GRE word you need to know.

So is dissemble. Does it mean:

dress or adorn in gaudy manner

to give a false or misleading appearance to

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Origin:
1325–75; Middle English < Medieval Latin pēnitent-, Latin paenitent- (stem of paenitēns), present participle of paenitēre to regret; replacing Middle English penaunt < Anglo-French; see penance

Related forms

pen·i·tent·ly, adverb

non·pen·i·tent, adjective, noun

un·pen·i·tent, adjective

un·pen·i·tent·ly, adverb

Synonyms
1. remorseful, rueful, sorrowful.

Antonyms
1. unrepentant, impenitent.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To penitent

Example Sentences

Just what might have been done by a penitent nation is not made clear.

There was a penitent nature to the soldier's words.

But the idea is not that a nation of penitents would make better fighters.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

penitent (ˈpɛnɪtənt)

—*adj*
1.	feeling regret for one's sins; repentant

—n
2.	a person who is penitent
3.	Christianity
	a. a person who repents his sins and seeks forgiveness for them
	b. RC Church a person who confesses his sins to a priest and submits to a penance imposed by him

[C14: from Church Latin paenitēns regretting, from paenitēre to repent, of obscure origin]

'penitence

—n

'penitently

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

penitent

late 14c. (adj.), mid-15c. (n.), from O.Fr. pénitent (14c.), from L. paenitentem (see penitence).

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purgatory remorseful repent sanbenito shrift

Matching Quote

"See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico;Msee if I would go"; and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness."

-Henry David Thoreau

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