noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Study of the processes devised and adopted for the punishment and prevention of crime. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the branch of criminology concerned with prison management and prisoner rehabilitation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

castigationchasteningchastisementcondign punishmentcorrectiondeserts

Etymology

From Latin poena (“penalty, punishment”) + -ology.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.