impenitent
im·pen·it·ent/ɪmˈpɛnət(ə)nt/adjective, noun
impenitent is spelled I-M-P-E-N-I-T-E-N-T: 10 letters and 4 syllables (im·pen·it·ent). It appears about once in every 33 million words in written English, the 176,009th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, impenitent means “Not penitent; specifically (Christianity), not repenting of one's sins; unrepentant” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in impenitent?
| Letters | 10: I-M-P-E-N-I-T-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: im·pen·it·ent |
| In writing | about once in every 33 million words; the 176,009th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is impenitent?
Impenitent appears about once in every 33 million words in written English, the 176,009th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce impenitent?
- UK /ɪmˈpɛnɪt(ə)nt/
- US /ɪmˈpɛnət(ə)nt/
- US [-ɾ(ə)nt]
Impenitent has 4 syllables, split im·pen·it·ent in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-impenitent.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of impenitent
- impenitents plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does impenitent mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Not penitent; specifically (Christianity), not repenting of one's sins; unrepentant.
noun
- 1
One who is not penitent.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does impenitent come from?
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English impenitent (“not penitent, unrepentant”), from Latin impaenitentem, the accusative feminine or masculine singular of impaenitēns (“unrepentant”), from im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + paenitēns (“contrite, penitent, regretting, repenting”) (the present active participle of paeniteō (“to be sorry, regret; to cause to repent; to repent”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate; to hurt”)). By surface analysis, im- + penitent. The noun is derived from the adjective.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).