How to Use penance in a Sentence

penance

noun
  • He did charitable work as a penance.
  • At first blush, penance seems a bit out of place in a world of protest.
    — Lloyd Daniel Barba, Fortune, 31 Mar. 2023
  • How these adult screw-ups pay penance is a great ethics question.
    — Logan Jenkins, sandiegouniontribune.com, 13 July 2017
  • So let’s think of this next step as something like a renter’s penance.
    — Clio Chang, Curbed, 26 Nov. 2025
  • Play without a 5-iron as a career penance?
    — Dave Hyde, Sun Sentinel, 30 Apr. 2026
  • In that sense, cooking for my sister-in-law felt more like penance than a good deed.
    — Kaila Yu, Glamour, 26 May 2021
  • Failures are written like penance.
    — Eli Raphael, PEOPLE, 10 May 2026
  • That car had all the great traits and none of the bad ones for which a 911 might pay penance.
    — Robert Ross, Robb Report, 27 Aug. 2022
  • Wasn't there some penance to be done in representing the little guy?
    — Dan Snierson, EW.com, 19 July 2022
  • This one-year penance business reeks of score-settling, petty grudges and arm-twisting.
    — Steve Buckley, New York Times, 28 Jan. 2026
  • Cripes, isn’t having to look at the Rockies for seven months penance enough for one town?
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 25 May 2026
  • The games were the penance paid for a couple nights in San Francisco.
    — Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 18 Oct. 2021
  • For many of those walking the procession route, this is still a serious act of penance.
    — Alexis Marshall, NPR, 3 Apr. 2026
  • The ashes symbolize penance and the dust from which God made people.
    — Francisco Guzman and Pete Burn, CNN, 26 Feb. 2020
  • For Lee, his journey through the virtual meat mixer can be read as an act of penance.
    — Lewis Gordon, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Whatever the penance was, the next day, Barry was back on the roster.
    — Jeremy Collins, The Atlantic, 12 Dec. 2025
  • Plus, Bacon adds, this phrase positions going to the gym as penance.
    — Melissa A. Fabello, SELF, 23 Dec. 2017
  • Here's everything to know about the annual day of fasting and penance.
    — Jennie Key, The Enquirer, 3 Apr. 2023
  • But after a year of penance, aka coaching in the Greek league, Iona came calling.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2021
  • And even when three goons set upon him with razor blades, Ajay stays quiet and accepts the cuts as penance.
    — Ron Charles, Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2022
  • Perhaps each one of us could make a list and share it among friends as a challenge and a penance and a celebration, too.
    — Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review, 28 June 2021
  • And because the scriptwriters love a good story, the Rams must return to the same field as their penance.
    — Jeff Howe, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2026
  • What penance was being so rigorously staged?
    — Helen Molesworth, Artforum, 1 Dec. 2025
  • As penance for dashing a child’s hopes, a rough-and-tumble hockey player must serve time as a genuine tooth fairy.
    — Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2019
  • Heck, everyone should do this anyway as penance for sending us your trash for half of a century.
    — Ravi Gupta, New York Daily News, 10 June 2026
  • But when a team embarrasses itself, its leaders need to step up, take the blame and perform penance.
    — Los Angeles Times, 16 July 2019
  • For the Christians who choose to observe it, Lent is a time of penance and abstinence.
    — refinery29.com, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Marsh mentions an old Catholic tradition that Fridays are a day of penance.
    — Chad Murphy, Cincinnati Enquirer, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary loved the old-school penance.
    — Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press, 8 June 2018
  • While working off his penance in Trollesund, Lyra arrives on her journey north.
    — Nick Romano, EW.com, 3 Nov. 2019

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

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