retribution

See also: rétribution

English

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

From Latin retribuere (“repay”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɹɛt.ɹɪˈbju.ʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -uːʃən

Noun

retribution (countable and uncountable, plural retributions)

1. Punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance.
   • 1983, Richard A. Posner, The economics of justice, m p.208:

     Whereas retribution focuses on the offender's wrong, retaliation focuses on the impulse of the victim (or of those who sympathize with him) to strike back at the offender.

   • 1999, Barbara Hanawalt, Medieval crime and social control, page 73:

     1. Revenge is for an injury; retribution is for a wrong.
     2. Retribution sets an internal limit to the amount of the punishment according to the seriousness of the wrong; revenge need not.
     3. Revenge is personal; the agent of retribution need have no special or personal tie to the victim of the wrong for which he exacts retribution.
     4. Revenge involves a particular emotional tone, pleasure in the suffering of another, while retribution need involve no emotional tone.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:revenge

Hypernyms

• punishment

Related terms

• retributionist
• retributive
• retributionary
• retributory
• retribute

Translations

punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance

Albanian: please add this translation if you can Arabic: عِقَاب (ar) m (ʕiqāb), اِنْتِقَام m (intiqām) Armenian: հատուցում (hy) (hatucʻum), վրեժ (hy) (vrež) Belarusian: адпла́та f (adpláta), ка́ра f (kára), по́мста f (pómsta), распла́та f (raspláta) Bulgarian: отпла́та (bg) f (otpláta), възме́здие (bg) n (vǎzmézdie), мъст (bg) f (mǎst) Chinese: Mandarin: 報應 / 报应 (zh) (bàoyìng), 惡報 / 恶报 (zh) (èbào) Czech: odplata f, pomsta (cs) f, trest (cs) m, odveta f Danish: gengældelse c, straf c Dutch: vergelding (nl) f Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Estonian: tasu, kättemaks Finnish: rangaistus (fi), kosto (fi) French: vendetta (fr) f, châtiment (fr) m, punition (fr) f Galician: castigo (gl) m Georgian: სამაგიერო (samagiero), სანაცვლო (sanacvlo) German: Vergeltung (de) f Gothic: 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍄 n (fraweit) Greek: ανταπόδοση (el) f (antapódosi) Ancient: τιμωρία f (timōría), τίσις f (tísis) Hungarian: megtorlás (hu), büntetés (hu) Irish: agairt f, díoltas m Italian: retribuzione (it) f, vendetta (it) f Japanese: 報復 (ja) (ほうふく, hōfuku), 復讐 (ja) (ふくしゅう, fukushū) Korean: 보복(報復) (ko) (bobok), 복수(復讐) (ko) (boksu) Latvian: atmaksa f Lithuanian: atpildas m Macedonian: одмазда f (odmazda), возврат m (vozvrat) Malay: balasan (ms) Maori: ngakinga Norwegian: Bokmål: gjengjeldelse (no) m Persian: پادافراه (fa) (pâdefrâh), انتقام (fa) (enteqâm) Polish: zemsta (pl) f, odwet (pl) m, kara (pl) f, pomsta (pl) f Portuguese: retribuição (pt) f Romanian: răzbunare (ro) f Russian: возме́здие (ru) n (vozmézdije), воздая́ние (ru) n (vozdajánije), ка́ра (ru) f (kára), месть (ru) f (mestʹ) (revenge), отпла́та (ru) f (otpláta), распла́та (ru) f (raspláta) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: о̀дмазда f Roman: òdmazda (sh) f Sicilian: vinnitta (scn) f Slovak: odplata f, pomsta f, trest m, odveta f Slovene: kazen (sl) f Spanish: castigo (es) m, retribución (es) f Swedish: vedergällning (sv) c Tagalog: gantindusa Tajik: интиқом (intiqom) Turkish: intikam (tr) Ukrainian: відпла́та f (vidpláta), ка́ра f (kára), пока́ра f (pokára), по́мста f (pómsta), розпла́та f (rozpláta)