How to Use penitent in a Sentence

penitent

1 of 2 adjective
  • But with Cash on the vocals, the song and the man singing are nearly penitent.
    Stephanie Kaloi, EW.com, 16 Dec. 2022
  • There’s been nothing penitent or muted about Cousins this year.
    Nathaniel Friedman, GQ, 30 Jan. 2018
  • Confidential relationships between a priest and a penitent, and a doctor and a patient, and a lawyer and a client.
    Fox News, 10 Apr. 2018
  • Ito was penitent in a meeting this week meant to air grievances and begin to heal disagreements, according to a New York Times report.
    Washington Post, 6 Sep. 2019
  • This rule applies, for example, to conversations between a lawyer and a client, between a priest and a penitent, and between a husband and wife.
    NBC News, 19 Nov. 2019
  • Weinstein’s own version tellingly vacillates in tone from the penitent to the petulant.
    Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2017
  • Darrell Larson portrays him, these many years later, as a penitent figure who might just have some heroism inside.
    Daryl H. Miller, latimes.com, 15 June 2018
  • If, for example, the penitent confesses from behind a screen, how can the confessor know for certain who is confessing?
    Rob Taylor and, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2018
  • Facebook executives did a penitent tour through the halls of media and the Capitol, offering apologies and begging for the public’s forgiveness.
    Jacob Silverman, Longreads, 2 May 2018
  • Some former Shining Path fighters joined: los arrepentidos, the penitent ones.
    Rachel Nolan, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
  • Stacked up one by one, the whole thing feels unrelenting, like a a permanent, penitent chorus, sung in harmony, museum to museum. .
    BostonGlobe.com, 11 Oct. 2019
  • The Rockets organization was similarly penitent, and rumors began to circulate that Morey, one of the league’s most talented executives, could lose his job.
    Nathaniel Friedman, The New Republic, 11 Oct. 2019
  • As with McBride’s voice-over, which Pitt delivers in intimate tones — like a lover or penitent whispering confidences in your ear — the helmet alternately reveals and obscures the character, putting the narrative dynamic into visual terms.
    New York Times, 20 Sep. 2019
  • But with Cash on the vocals, the song and the man singing are nearly penitent.
    Stephanie Kaloi, EW.com, 16 Dec. 2022
  • There’s been nothing penitent or muted about Cousins this year.
    Nathaniel Friedman, GQ, 30 Jan. 2018
  • Confidential relationships between a priest and a penitent, and a doctor and a patient, and a lawyer and a client.
    Fox News, 10 Apr. 2018
  • Ito was penitent in a meeting this week meant to air grievances and begin to heal disagreements, according to a New York Times report.
    Washington Post, 6 Sep. 2019
  • This rule applies, for example, to conversations between a lawyer and a client, between a priest and a penitent, and between a husband and wife.
    NBC News, 19 Nov. 2019
  • Weinstein’s own version tellingly vacillates in tone from the penitent to the petulant.
    Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2017
  • Darrell Larson portrays him, these many years later, as a penitent figure who might just have some heroism inside.
    Daryl H. Miller, latimes.com, 15 June 2018
  • If, for example, the penitent confesses from behind a screen, how can the confessor know for certain who is confessing?
    Rob Taylor and, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2018
  • Facebook executives did a penitent tour through the halls of media and the Capitol, offering apologies and begging for the public’s forgiveness.
    Jacob Silverman, Longreads, 2 May 2018
  • Some former Shining Path fighters joined: los arrepentidos, the penitent ones.
    Rachel Nolan, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
  • Stacked up one by one, the whole thing feels unrelenting, like a a permanent, penitent chorus, sung in harmony, museum to museum. .
    BostonGlobe.com, 11 Oct. 2019
  • The Rockets organization was similarly penitent, and rumors began to circulate that Morey, one of the league’s most talented executives, could lose his job.
    Nathaniel Friedman, The New Republic, 11 Oct. 2019
  • As with McBride’s voice-over, which Pitt delivers in intimate tones — like a lover or penitent whispering confidences in your ear — the helmet alternately reveals and obscures the character, putting the narrative dynamic into visual terms.
    New York Times, 20 Sep. 2019
Advertisement

penitent

2 of 2 noun
  • Some of the penitents had their backs inflicted with cuts to keep them bloody.
    Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Often the penitents wash up and hastily change back into plain clothes to be able to do it.
    Text By Gaia Pianigiani, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2017
  • The costumer-confessor and actress-penitent were in a state of hope.
    New York Times, 4 May 2021
  • In other words, if Trump is penitent, Facebook could still give him back his passwords.
    Philip Elliott, Time, 5 May 2021
  • This clergy-penitent privilege is on the books in 33 states, including Utah, the AP found.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 23 Dec. 2022
  • The door to one bedroom is an antique three-door confessional — center door for the priest, two side doors for penitents.
    Judy Rose, Detroit Free Press, 8 July 2017
  • That something similar holds for him suggests the one true-faith note of this novel: that there is no difference between judge and penitent.
    David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2021
  • During an interview with the AP before the new court records were filed, Nelson defended the church’s actions in the Adams case and the clergy-penitent privilege.
    Michael Rezendes and Jason Dearen, Anchorage Daily News, 9 Sep. 2022
  • Today is Good Friday, which means those who’ve been practicing a penitent and meat-free Lenten diet are nearing the end of their observance.
    Amy Drew Thompson, Orlando Sentinel, 15 Apr. 2022
  • Some of the penitents flagellated themselves while walking for hours, beseeching the Madonna to heal them or to cure their sick children.
    Text By Gaia Pianigiani, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2017
  • In the circumstances, Benedict’s plea for forgiveness—penitent in mood but not in substance—models a way of doing things that should be left behind.
    Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2022
  • None of them has challenged the clergy-penitent privilege.
    Jason Dearen and Michael Rezendes, The Arizona Republic, 29 Sep. 2022
  • In his verse—by turns, introspective, penitent, and hopeful—No Malice seems to express thoughts that Pusha never will.
    Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 28 Apr. 2022
  • Beneath the statue of St. Joseph, a handmade system of green and red light bulbs indicated whether the adjacent storage room was empty for the next penitent.
    Matthew Walther, TheWeek, 12 Apr. 2020
  • Prior to the cross nailings, dozens of male penitents walked several kilometers (miles) along village streets while beating their bare backs with sharp bamboo sticks and pieces of wood.
    Time, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Prior to the crucifixions, dozens of male penitents walked several kilometers (miles) through village streets, beating their bare backs with sharp bamboo sticks and pieces of wood.
    Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2018
  • The crowd grows so dense — easily in the hundreds — that when we are finally admitted into the garden, the mass of humanity moves along the path like a slow procession of super stylish penitents.
    Carolina A. Miranda, latimes.com, 27 May 2018
  • And, indeed, any romance that an uncareful reader might have brought to the story of penitent, suffering Jude is erased by what we’re literally shown.
    Daniel D'addario, Variety, 21 Oct. 2022
  • Even if cats weren’t always as appreciated as other pets (the Romans had a penitent for lap dogs, for example), cats still conquered one famous piece of ancient Roman history.
    Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 16 Sep. 2022
  • Benenson, who was also Hillary Clinton’s pollster, on a campaign that failed to measure the intensity of the anti-establishment wave, paused for a minute, considering the image of Trump giving a penitent speech.
    Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2020
  • The operative subtext here is that Mary Magdalene has gotten a raw deal through the millennia — often depicted as a penitent prostitute follower of Jesus.
    Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2022
  • Aside from the legal arguments over whether Bishops Herrod and Mauzy were excused from their reporting obligations under the clergy-penitent privilege, critics of the inaction by the two bishops and the broader church have raised ethical issues.
    Michael Rezendes, The Arizona Republic, 4 Aug. 2022
  • The last bit is driven home when, like a penitent in a confessional, Hero tells Roxanne her dark secret, effectively surrendering herself for the low, low price of some matriarchal absolution.
    Devon Maloney, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2021
  • The seven days culminate with a Sunday procession, which includes hundreds of self-flagellating, hooded penitents.
    Text By Gaia Pianigiani, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2017
  • As the exhibition unfolds, artists-penitent, shrinking from the perils of originality, dominate in Russia.
    Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 21 Dec. 2020
  • Father Gigante refused to give straight answers, saying he was exempted by priest-penitent confidentiality.
    Robert D. McFadden, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2022
  • His preoccupations therein are with dualities, dichotomies and doubles: philanderer-penitent, solitude-solipsism, prince-pauper, Clark Kent-Superman, to name just a few.
    Kate Bolick, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2017
  • Some of the penitents had their backs inflicted with cuts to keep them bloody.
    Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Often the penitents wash up and hastily change back into plain clothes to be able to do it.
    Text By Gaia Pianigiani, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2017
  • The costumer-confessor and actress-penitent were in a state of hope.
    New York Times, 4 May 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'penitent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: