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penitentiary
[pen-i-ten-shuh-ree]
noun
plural
penitentiariesa place for imprisonment, reformatory discipline, or punishment, especially a prison maintained in the U.S. by a state or the federal government for serious offenders.
Roman Catholic Church.a tribunal in the Curia Romana, presided over by a cardinal grand penitentiary, having jurisdiction over certain matters, as penance, confession, dispensation, absolution, and impediments, and dealing with questions of conscience reserved for the Holy See.
adjective
(of an offense) punishable by imprisonment in a penitentiary.
of, relating to, or intended for imprisonment, reformatory discipline, or punishment.
penitentiary
/ ˌɛɪˈɛʃəɪ /
noun
Sometimes shortened to: pen.(in the US and Canada) a state or federal prison: in Canada, esp a federal prison for offenders convicted of serious crimes
RC Church
a cleric appointed to supervise the administration of the sacrament of penance in a particular area
a priest who has special faculties to absolve particularly grave sins
a cardinal who presides over a tribunal that decides all matters affecting the sacrament of penance
this tribunal itself
adjective
another word for penitential
(of an offence) punishable by imprisonment in a penitentiary
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of penitentiary1
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of penitentiary1
Example Sentences
This month, he proposed reopening Alcatraz, the decaying island penitentiary in the San Francisco Bay, to house the country’s “most ruthless and violent” criminals.
An investigation by the Marshall Project in 2022 disclosed pervasive violence and abuse at a high-security unit in the Thomson federal penitentiary in Illinois.
Inside the penitentiary, with a backdrop of heavily tattooed prisoners stacked behind bars, Noem went on X to deliver a warning.
As the documentary outlines, the building of that “state-of-the-art” penitentiary in the middle of the redwood forest in the northernmost part of California helped dehumanize those housed within its walls.
The former kingpin is serving a life term at ADX Florence, a maximum security federal penitentiary in Colorado where he has no contact with other inmates.
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When To Use
A penitentiary is a prison, especially a state or federal prison in the United States or Canada.Penitentiaries typically house criminals who have committed major crimes. The word is often used in formal contexts. In less formal and slang usage, it is often shortened to pen or the pen, such as in the phrase state pen (a penitentiary run by a state government, as opposed to the federal government). It is sometimes used as an adjective describing related things.Less commonly, the word is used as the name of a special type of Roman Catholic tribunal.Example: If convicted, your client is facing a life sentence in a federal penitentiary.
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