penitence
"penitence" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“penitence” is an uncommon English word, ranked #70,999 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #70,999
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The condition of being penitent; a feeling of regret or remorse for doing wrong or sinning.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | penitence |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #70,999 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “penitence” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for penitence is 9 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #70,999 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The condition of being penitent; a feeling of regret or remorse for doing wrong or sinning.".
No misspelling variants are generated for penitence in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested circa 13th century, from Middle English penitence, from Old French penitence, from Latin paenitentia (“repentance, penitence”), from paenitēns (“penitent”), present active participle of paeniteō (“regret, repent”). Equivalent to penitent + -e… The correct English form is penitence, spelled P-E-N-I-T-E-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1The condition of being penitent; a feeling of regret or remorse for doing wrong or sinning.
Etymology
First attested circa 13th century, from Middle English penitence, from Old French penitence, from Latin paenitentia (“repentance, penitence”), from paenitēns (“penitent”), present active participle of paeniteō (“regret, repent”). Equivalent to penitent + -ence. Doublet of penance.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “penitence”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-E-N-I-T-E-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.