Word Type

Noun

The word "punishment" can be used as a noun.

Word Relationships

Opposites (Antonyms)

nice nice reward praise reward rewarding

Typical Location

jail

Derived Terms

antipunishment brute for punishment capital punishment collective punishment counterpunishment funishment glutton for punishment group punishment nonpunishment overpunishment petticoat punishment punishment pass punishmental self-punishment sucker for punishment unpunishment vicarious punishment

Derived From

punish

Distinct From

reward

Etymologically Related To

punishing punition

Broader Terms (Hypernyms)

adjudication revenge social control

Narrower Terms (Hyponyms)

corporal punishment mirror punishment retribution

Type Of (IsA)

activity applied to criminals deterrent against doing wrong things greater for repeat offender jail time one possible deterrent to crime outcome of justice social control

Parts (Meronyms)

enforcement penalty

Receives Action

given to people who break laws

Related Terms

impunity punishable punisher punishing punitive punitory telishment

Related Terms

action bad bad behavior bad child bad consequence bad kid bad sentence bad student bad thing baddies badness beating begins begins pun behavior behavior correction being being bad book book title cane castigation chastisement child children children crying connection consequence conviction conviction result corporal corporal justice correcting correcting behavior correcting sentencing correction corrective corrective action court court decides crime crime and crime consequence crime deterrent crime outcome crime payment crime penalty crime result crime sentence crimes crimes and criminals cruel cruel unusual crying debt decides decision detention deterrent disciple discipline discourage discourage bad doing doing wrong due effect feedback felony flagellation flogging for baddies for badness for children for crime for crimes for criminals for sinners for wrongdoers for wrongdoing fun function get spanking giving giving pain grounding guilty harm harsh harsh discipline hello hurt impunity in jail inflicting inflicting pain jail jail function jail sentence jail time jails judges judges decision justice kid lessons like like detention like jail like spanking loss mean meant milder mints negative negative feedback negative reinforcement negative repayment negative result novel or spanking out outcome pain painful pay pay debt payment penal penal action penalize penalty penance praise prison prison connection prison effect prison sentence prisons pun punch punch mints punish punishable punisher punishing punitive punitive action punitive term punitive treatment reinforcement repayment reprimand result retaliatory retribution revenge sanction school scolding sentence sentencing sin sinners spanking spankings student suffering teaching teaching lessons telishment term time time out title torture treatment trouble unpleasant unusual when when bad whipping with criminals wrong wrongdoers wrongdoing

Synonym Network

beating castigation chastisement punition

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