retribution

See also: rétribution

English

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

From Latin retribuere (“repay”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɹɛt.ɹɪ.ˈbju.ʃən/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (US)

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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

• 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)