penal
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or involving punishment, as for crimes or offenses.
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prescribing punishment.
penal laws.
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constituting punishment.
He survived the years of penal hardship.
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used as a place of confinement and punishment.
a penal colony.
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subject to or incurring punishment.
a penal offense.
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payable or forfeitable as a penalty.
a penal sum.
adjective
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of, relating to, constituting, or prescribing punishment
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payable as a penalty
a penal sum
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used or designated as a place of punishment
a penal institution
Other Word Forms
- nonpenal adjective
- penality noun
- penally adverb
- unpenal adjective
- unpenally adverb
Etymology
Origin of penal
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin poenālis, equivalent to poen ( a ) penalty (< Greek poinḗ fine) + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
Anything described as penal has something to do with legal punishment. Prisons are one important part of a country's penal system. Whenever you see the adjective penal, you'll know it has to do with court-ordered punishment. A government's penal code, for example, is a list of crimes and the punishments imposed for each of them. You might notice how similar penal is to the word penalty — in fact, they both stem from the same Latin word, poena, and the Greek root poine, both of which mean "punishment."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Memorial was founded in the late 1980s to document victims of Soviet-era political repression during which millions of people perished in the Gulag penal system.
From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026
According to Russian accounts, the 47-year-old took a short walk at his Siberian penal colony, said he felt unwell, then collapsed and never regained consciousness.
From BBC • Feb. 14, 2026
The punishment for which in Colombia is a prison sentence of between 26 to 45 years, according to the country's penal code.
From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026
Despite the many Aboriginal communities, the British deemed the place terra nullius—no one’s land—and established a penal colony, bringing diseases that drastically reduced the indigenous population.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 28, 2026
"And Landor got penal servitude and died in prison."
From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
