1
: of, relating to, or involving punishment, penalties, or punitive institutions
2
: liable to punishment
a penal offense
3
: used as a place of confinement and punishment
a penal colony
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A state or country's penal code defines its crimes and describes its punishments. During the 18th and 19th centuries, many countries established penal colonies, where criminals were sent as punishment. Often these were unbearably severe; but it was to such colonies that some of Australia's and the United States' early white inhabitants came, and the convicts provided labor for the European settlement of these lands.
Synonyms
Examples of penal in a Sentence
Australia was once a penal colony.
Recent Examples on the Web
The presiding judge in the New York trial in which writer E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of abusing her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room wrote that Carroll failed to prove that she was raped within the narrow scope of the New York penal law.
—
Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 19 Dec. 2024
But when a president, at the end of his term in office, in the interest of fairness, corrects mistakes made by the penal system during his or a previous president's term, that is often a grace note of his time in office.
—Mark R. Weaver, Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2024
The county prisoners held at the site were moved to Milwaukee County's new penal farm in what was then the Town of Franklin.
—Chris Foran, Journal Sentinel, 28 Oct. 2024
The authorities pledged that the facility would be run in accordance with standard legal norms and penal practices, unlike its predecessor.
—Richard J. Evans, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2017
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Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 19 Dec. 2024
But when a president, at the end of his term in office, in the interest of fairness, corrects mistakes made by the penal system during his or a previous president's term, that is often a grace note of his time in office.
—Mark R. Weaver, Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2024
The county prisoners held at the site were moved to Milwaukee County's new penal farm in what was then the Town of Franklin.
—Chris Foran, Journal Sentinel, 28 Oct. 2024
The authorities pledged that the facility would be run in accordance with standard legal norms and penal practices, unlike its predecessor.
—Richard J. Evans, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2017
See all Example Sentences for penal
Dictionary Entries Near penal
Cite this Entry
“Penal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/penal. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
penal
adjective
pe·nal
ˈpēn-ᵊl 
: of or relating to punishment
penal laws
a penal colony
Legal Definition
penal
adjective
pe·nal
ˈpēn-ᵊl
1
: of, relating to, or being punishment
penal sanctions
2
: making one (as an offender) punishable
a penal offense
also
: criminal sense 2
3
: used as a place of confinement and punishment
a penal institution
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