punish
verb
Simple meaning
To cause to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action, usually by an authority or a person in authority.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
puhnishSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpʌnɪʃ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To cause (a child, student, or someone else being looked after, or a suspect or criminal) to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent, teacher, or police officer).
transitivefiguratively
To treat harshly and unfairly.
transitivecolloquial
To handle or beat severely; to maul.
transitivecolloquial
To consume a large quantity of.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To cause (a child, student, or someone else being looked after, or a suspect or criminal) to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent, teacher, or police officer).
Used this way, punish is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in education or classroom and family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Education/classroom
- Family/home
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Subjected to a penalty (as pain or shame or restraint or loss) for an offense or fault or in order to coerce some behavior (as a confession or obedience).
Resulting in punishment.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An instrument designed and used to punish a condemned person.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.