1. (a.) Relating to penance, or to the rules and measures of penance.

2. (a.) Expressive of penitence; as, a penitentiary letter.

3. (a.) Used for punishment, discipline, and reformation.

4. (n.) One who prescribes the rules and measures of penance.

5. (n.) One who does penance.

6. (n.) A small building in a monastery where penitents confessed.

7. (n.) That part of a church to which penitents were admitted.

8. (n.) An office of the papal court which examines cases of conscience, confession, absolution from vows, etc., and delivers decisions, dispensations, etc. Its chief is a cardinal, called the Grand Penitentiary, appointed by the pope.

9. (n.) An officer in some dioceses since A. D. 1215, vested with power from the bishop to absolve in cases reserved to him.

10. (n.) A house of correction, in which offenders are confined for punishment, discipline, and reformation, and in which they are generally compelled to labor.

Grand Penitentiary Holy Father POW camp abuna antipope archbishop archdeacon archpriest bail bastille bishop bishop coadjutor black hole borstal borstal institution bridewell brig can canon cardinal cardinal bishop cardinal deacon cardinal priest cassock cell chaplain coadjutor concentration camp condemned cell confessor cooler coop curate cure dean death cell death house death row detention camp diocesan ecclesiarch exarch father father confessor father in Christ federal prison forced-labor camp gallach gaol guardhouse hierarch high priest hoosegow house of correction house of detention industrial school internment camp jail jailhouse keep labor camp lockup maximum-security prison metropolitan minimum-security prison oubliette padre papa parish priest patriarch pen penal colony penal institution penal settlement pontiff pope prebendary prelate presbyter priest primate prison prison camp prisonhouse rector reform school reformatory rural dean spiritual director spiritual father sponging house state prison stockade subdean suffragan the hole tollbooth training school vicar