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penitencia

Spanish, noun

penitencia is spelled P-E-N-I-T-E-N-C-I-A (10 letters) and appears 3.0 times per million words in written Spanish, the 17,054th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Penitencia is a Spanish feminine noun meaning “penance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a third-person singular present indicative of penitenciar. With an accent, penitenciá is a different word: “second-person singular voseo imperative of penitenciar”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Sacramento de algunas religiones cristianas, que por medio de este, el sacerdote perdona los pecados al…”.

What does penitencia mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    femininepenance

verb

  1. 1

    third-person singular present indicative

  2. 2

    second-person singular imperative

verb

as penitenciá
  1. 1

    second-person singular voseo imperative of penitenciar

Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How Spanish dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Sacramento de algunas religiones cristianas, que por medio de este, el sacerdote perdona los pecados al pecador arrepentido cuando los confiesa, haciendo un posterior propósito de enmienda. 2. Virtud que consiste en arrepentirse por haber pecado. 3. Pena que el cura confesor impone al penitente como expiación de sus pecados. 4. Acción en la que una persona se mortifica, ya sea interna o externamente.

The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.

Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of penitencia

  • penitencias plural

Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to penitencia

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is penitencia in Spanish?

penitencia appears 3.0 times per million words in written Spanish.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after penitencia