Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Sincere remorse for wrongdoing; repentance. See Synonyms at penitence.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of grinding or rubbing to powder; attrition.
- n. Brokenness of spirit for having given offense; deep sorrow for sin or guilt; pious compunction; sincere penitence.
- n. Synonyms Penitence, Compunction, etc. See repentance.
Wiktionary
- n. The state of being contrite; sincere penitence or remorse.
- n. The act of grinding or rubbing to powder; attrition; friction; rubbing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete The act of grinding or ribbing to powder; attrition; friction; rubbing.
- n. The state of being contrite; deep sorrow and repentance for sin, because sin is displeasing to God; humble penitence; through repentance.
WordNet 3.0
- n. sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation
Etymologies
- Ultimately from Latin contritio. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“By that account,' said Lady Anne, 'which I believe to be just, her contrition is always ten times as great as her offence.”
“BTW, "contrition" is precisely what rankles for most of the naysayers.”
“The expression of contrition from Mr. Shimizu came a day after the Japanese government raised its assessment of the nuclear crisis to 7, the highest on an international scale, from 5.”
“The apology arrived 25 days after the incident, and Barrichello took delivery of it on his mobile phone, but it still counts as a rare act of contrition from the German.”
The Guardian: Michael Schumacher sorry for putting squeeze on Rubens Barrichello
“I have yet to hear any acts of contrition from the media or people like Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, who i held in passable esteem for what they said and why they said it.”
“In contrast, and in contrition, I must highly recommend an excellent traditional platformer that recently became available on Virtual Console; I didn't pick it up until last night.”
“Of course, asking Rose to dive headfirst into an act of contrition is like asking Anaheim Angels pitchers to feed dead-red fastballs to Bonds.”
“Rocker's apparent contrition is merely a signal that another episode is on the way.”
“What we call contrition is often only imperfect contrition -- that is, sorrow for our sins because we fear their punishment in Hell or dread the loss of Heaven.”
Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine
“The word contrition itself in a moral sense is not of frequent occurrence in”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘contrition’.
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sdamle1
echt
echt, apocalypse, resurgence, forthright, logorrhea, mercurial, torrid, exorcise, obscure, intrusive, morose, vindictive and 100 more...
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Mirrored Vowels
Rules:
• The word must have an even number of vowels.
• There must be four or more vowels; thus, at minimum, an A-A-A-A or A-B-B-A pattern.
• The vowels must appear in a mir...feminine, solicitor, caruncular, repackager, semiprimes, fetishises, decomposer, demonlover, recomposer, sepultures, lipotropic, colesterol and 385 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Good for Academics
Gahh!! Study!
supplant, usurp, finagle, winnow, draconian, abut, collude, swindle, objectify, incite, decadent, obstinate and 327 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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tranquill's Words
loquacious, unmitigated, trundle, ephemeral, vociferous, trapezoidal, liminal, obsequious, veracity, squash, onomatopoeia, oscillate and 267 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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amy's GRE 2012
gimmicks, kowtow, unpretentious, skeptical, cynical, somber, prevaricate, equivocate, requisite, embellish, impregnable, procrastinate and 307 more...
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Big Book #2 List
absolution, restitution, contrition, moratorium, nautical, nirvana, pandemonium, perennial, symposium, dialectic, dipsomaniacal, ecumenical and 117 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Verbal Advantage List
ostensible, paraphrase, digress, uncanny, candor, morose, adept, saturated, pragmatic, congenial, capricious, blatant and 487 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for contrition.
gangerh 'Lots of hot water, Mrs Malaprop. Her contritions are feeling more intense.' Jul 24, 2008
logophile ‘Do I see a Penitent, or a Criminal?’ She said at length; ‘Are those hands raised in contrition for your crimes, or in fear of meeting their punishment? Do those tears acknowledge the justice of your doom, or only solicit mitigation of your sufferings? I fear me, ’tis the latter!’
-The Prioress in Lewis' The Monk Feb 8, 2008