I. ˈpēn ə l adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin poenalis, from poena penalty, punishment + -alis -al — more at pain
1. : designed to impose punishment : prescribing, enacting, or threatening punishment : punitive
the penal clause
2. : liable or subject to punishment or a penalty : incurring punishment
a penal offense
3. : inflicted as or constituting punishment or penalty or used as a means of punishment
marks for any infraction of the rules … were worked off in penal study — A.W.Long
4.
a. : forfeitable or payable as a penalty
b. : involving or imposing a pecuniary penalty — see penal sum
5. : of or relating to punishment, penalty, penal laws, or penal servitude
penal reform
6. : used as a place of confinement and punishment
a penal colony
a penal farm
7. : inflicting a penalty : severely disadvantageous
terms decidedly penal to those who … put their money into steel — Economist
II. adjective
Etymology: pen is + -al
: penial