venial
able to be forgiven or pardoned; not seriously wrong, as a sin (opposed to mortal).
excusable; trifling; minor: a venial error; a venial offense.
Origin of venial
1Other words for venial
Other words from venial
- ve·ni·al·i·ty, ve·ni·al·ness, noun
- ve·ni·al·ly, adverb
- un·ve·ni·al, adjective
- un·ve·ni·al·ly, adverb
- un·ve·ni·al·ness, noun
- un·ve·ni·al·i·ty, noun
Words that may be confused with venial
- venal, venial
Words Nearby venial
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use venial in a sentence
Conventionality is the most venial of all moviemaking sins, if it’s a sin at all.
In The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Benedict Cumberbatch Brings a Famed Painter of Cats to Life | Stephanie Zacharek | November 5, 2021 | TimeThe SEC charging Goldman with securities fraud is like the Vatican charging a priest with venial sin.
The child, who teaches its grandmother to suck eggs, commits a venial fault in comparison.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I | Ian HamiltonIts greatest fault was not extravagance, for that is a venial folly, but ignorance, which even youth cannot wholly excuse.
Vie de Bohme | Orlo WilliamsIn these hopeful moods it was a necessity of his drama that his transgression of the law should seem venial to him.
The Quality of Mercy | W. D. Howells
Play, in men whose means are ample, if considered a vice, is thought a very venial one.
Bentley's Miscellany, Volume II | VariousThose who have only committed venial sins are first purified of them, and then rewarded for the good which they have done.
Phaedo | Plato
British Dictionary definitions for venial
/ (ˈviːnɪəl) /
easily excused or forgiven: a venial error
Origin of venial
1Derived forms of venial
- veniality (ˌviːnɪ'ælɪtɪ), noun
- venially, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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