adj ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Inflicting punishment; punishing.

   "Beijing imposed punitive sanctions on Canada."

Adjective

1. 1
   inflicting punishment wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

correctionalpenalretaliativepunitoryavengingcastigating

Antonyms

All antonyms

nonpunitiveunpunitiverehabilitative

Example

More examples

"Jail is a very harsh punitive measure."

Etymology

From Middle French punitif, from Medieval Latin pūnitīvus, from pūniō (“I punish”).

Related phrases

punitive damagespunitive populismpunitive damages

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