repentance
re·pen·tance/ɹɪˈpɛntəns/noun
repentance is spelled R-E-P-E-N-T-A-N-C-E, 3 syllables: re·pen·tance. The wrong spelling people search most is repentence: about 170 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Repentance is a noun meaning “The action of repenting, an instance of it, atonement”. The plural of repentance is repentances.
How many letters and syllables are in repentance?
| Letters | 10: R-E-P-E-N-T-A-N-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: re·pen·tance |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words; the 22,651st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, repentence, about 170 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell repentance?
Repentance is spelled R-E-P-E-N-T-A-N-C-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 12 of the searches for repentance in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is repentance?
Repentance appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st 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 repentance?
- /ɹɪˈpɛntəns/
- /ˈɹɛpəntəns/
- [ˈɹep.ən.tʰənsʰ]
Repentance has 3 syllables, split re·pen·tance in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-repentance.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with repentance?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as repentance.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: penetrance.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of repentance
- repentances plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does repentance mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The action of repenting, an instance of it, atonement.
- 2
The condition of being repentant, penitent, a state of feeling regret or remorse for having done wrong.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Repentance in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense condition of being repentant, penitent, feeling remorse:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | repentance, repentir |
| German | Reue |
| Portuguese | arrependimento |
| Spanish | arrepentimiento |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does repentance come from?
First attested circa 14th century, from Middle English repentance, repentaunce, from Old French repentance. More at repent. By surface analysis, repent + -ance.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).