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say it: PEE-nuhl
penal is an adjective meaning "of or relating to punishment". It carries 3 recorded senses.
of or relating to punishment
“penal reform”
“penal code”
serving as or designed to impose punishment
“penal servitude”
“the juvenile was sentenced to six months in a penal institution”
(of an act or offense) subject to punishment by law
“a penal offense”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for penal come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.