Venial

//ˈviːni.əl// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Able to be forgiven; worthy of forgiveness.

    "He did not say that he should favour such an attempt; But he did say that such an attempt would be venial."

  2. 2
    Able to be forgiven; worthy of forgiveness.; Worthy of forgiveness because trifling (trivial). especially, often

    "His venial youthful indiscretions."

  3. 3
    Not causing spiritual death.
Adjective
  1. 1
    easily excused or forgiven wordnet
  2. 2
    warranting only temporal punishment wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
forgivablepardonableadmissibleallowablecondonabledefensible

Example

More examples

"He did not say that he should favour such an attempt; But he did say that such an attempt would be venial."

Etymology

From Old French venial, borrowed from Late Latin veniālem (“pardonable”), from Latin venia (“forgiveness”).

Related phrases

venial sin

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