Definitions for punishment
ˈpʌn ɪʃ məntpun·ish·ment

Princeton's WordNet(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. punishment, penalty, penalization, penalisationnoun

   the act of punishing

Wiktionary(3.75 / 4 votes)Rate this definition:

1. punishmentnoun

   The act or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction.

2. punishmentnoun

   A penalty to punish wrongdoing, especially for crime.

3. punishmentnoun

   A suffering by pain or loss imposed as retribution

4. punishmentnoun

   Any treatment or experience so harsh it feels like being punished; rough handling

   a vehicle that can take a lot of punishment

Webster Dictionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Punishmentnoun

   the act of punishing

2. Punishmentnoun

   any pain, suffering, or loss inflicted on a person because of a crime or offense

3. Punishmentnoun

   a penalty inflicted by a court of justice on a convicted offender as a just retribution, and incidentally for the purposes of reformation and prevention

Freebase(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Punishment

   Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something undesirable or unpleasant on, or the removal of something desirable or pleasant from, a person, animal, organization or entity in response to behavior deemed unacceptable by an individual, group or other entity. The authority may be either a group or a single person, and punishment may be carried out formally under a system of law or informally in other kinds of social settings such as within a family. Negative consequences that are not authorized or that are administered without a breach of rules are not considered to be punishment as defined here. The study and practice of the punishment of crimes, particularly as it applies to imprisonment, is called penology, or, often in modern texts, corrections; in this context, the punishment process is euphemistically called "correctional process". Research into punishment often includes similar research into prevention. Fundamental justifications for punishment include: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitations such as isolation in order to prevent the wrongdoer's having contact with potential victims. Of the four justifications, only retribution is part of the definition of punishment and none of the other justifications is a guaranteed outcome.

The Roycroft Dictionary(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. punishment

   1. The justice that the guilty deal out to those who are caught. 2. A perpetual fine, imposed hourly during the lifetime of a human being for his temerity in living, and continued in Heaven or Hell for his temerity in dying. 3. Among the poor and lowly, a service due the State for disobeying the mandates of the rich and powerful; among the rich, a slight reaction from overeating. (There are three kinds of punishment: the punishment of God, the punishment of man, and the punishment of living in Buffalo.)

U.S. National Library of Medicine(4.25 / 4 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Punishment

   The application of an unpleasant stimulus or penalty for the purpose of eliminating or correcting undesirable behavior.

Dictionary of Nautical Terms(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. punishment

   The execution of the sentence against an offender, as awarded by a court-martial, or adjudged by a superior officer.

Matched Categories

1. • Social Control

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'punishment' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4026

2. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'punishment' in Nouns Frequency: #1565

How to pronounce punishment?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say punishment in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of punishment in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of punishment in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of punishment in a Sentence

1. Cicero:

   There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment.

2. Rebecca Ryan:

   There probably is reverse causation, but one of the things that some of the longitudinal research suggests is that when you look at kids over time -- so controlling for baseline rates of misbehavior -- children who are disciplined with corporal punishment versus those who are not, who have the same kinds of behavior problems, show increases in behavior problems over time in a way that children who aren't disciplined that way don't, so yes, there is probably some truth to the idea that kids who are predisposed to misbehavior for whatever reason are more likely to be spanked by parents who use that form of discipline than kids who are less likely to misbehave for whatever reason.

3. Horace Mann:

   When a child can be brought to tears, and not from fear of punishment, but from repentance he needs no chastisement. When the tears begin to flow from the grief of their conduct you can be sure there is an angel nestling in their heart.

4. Philip Luther:

   The Iranian authorities’ prolific use of corporal punishment, including on children, demonstrates a shocking disregard for basic humanity, they should immediately abolish all forms of such punishment, which in Iran includes amputation and blinding as well as flogging.

5. Merve Tahiroglu:

   What is striking about detained women since the failed coup is that some of them are simply wives or children of suspects, but not suspects themselves. This amounts to collective punishment.

Popularity rank by frequency of use