Repentance

//ɹɪˈpɛntəns// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The condition of being repentant, penitent. countable, uncountable

    "1678, Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, second period God hath denied me repentance. His words gives me no encouragement to believe."

  2. 2
    remorse for your past conduct wordnet
  3. 3
    A feeling of regret or remorse for doing wrong or sinning. countable, uncountable

    "And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment."

Synonyms

All synonyms
compunctioncontritionpenitencepenitenceremorseabject apology

Example

More examples

"Short pleasure, long repentance."

Etymology

First attested circa 14th century, from Old French repentance. More at repent.

Related phrases

herb of repentanceright of repentancestool of repentance

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