penitential

[US]/penɪ'tenʃ(ə)l/
[UK]/ˌpɛnɪ'tɛnʃl/
Frequency: Very High

Translation

adj. expressing or relating to feelings of regret or repentance, relating to penance
n. a book of rules for penance
Word Forms

Phrases & Collocations

penitential prayer

Example Sentences

Columban introduced to Europe the Irish penitential discipline, including private confession.

The penitential act of confessing one's sins

She approached the altar with a penitential heart

The monk spent hours in penitential prayer

Penitential practices are common during Lent

He wore a penitential expression on his face

The penitential psalms are often recited during religious ceremonies

She wrote a penitential letter to apologize for her mistake

The penitential journey to redemption was long and arduous

The penitential rite helped cleanse his soul

He performed penitential acts to atone for his sins

Real-world Examples

The penitential den once set apart for interviews with the House, was now the news-Exchange, and was filled to overflowing.

Source: A Tale of Two Cities (Original Version)

If they would serve their fellow-men, let them do it by making manifest the power and reality of conscience, in constraining them to penitential self-abasement!

Source: Red characters

Mr. Bulstrode paused. He felt that he was performing a striking piece of scrupulosity in the judgment of his auditor, and a penitential act in the eyes of God.

Source: Middlemarch (Part Four)

As soon as I arrived, I sent a penitential codfish and barrel of oysters to Joe (as reparation for not having gone myself), and then went on to Barnard's Inn.

Source: Great Expectations (Original Version)

In three minutes the Vicar was on horseback again, having gone magnanimously through a duty much harder than the renunciation of whist, or even than the writing of penitential meditations.

Source: Middlemarch (Part Four)

Penitential colours—less like something she'd chosen to put on than like something she'd been locked up in. Her solemn half-smile; the amazed lift of her eyebrows, as if she were admiring the view.

Source: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

It says that if someone is found murdered outside a town the elders of the nearest town have to undergo a penitential ritual and say a prayer for absolution that contains the words, “Our hands did not shed this blood.”

Source: BBC Listening Collection August 2015

But Mr. Bulstrode had to-night followed the order of his emotions; he entertained no doubt that the opportunity for restitution had come, and he had an overpowering impulse towards the penitential expression by which he was deprecating chastisement.

Source: Middlemarch (Part Four)

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