Penance

Have you ever experienced the feeling when you know you have committed a mistake and things cannot be reversed? The overwhelming sense of guilt floods your being and that is the stage that you decide to punish yourself for your misdeeds. That punishment you give yourself is your penance.

Pronunciation: pen-uhns

Meaning of penance: (Noun)

1) Act of self-mortification to show sadness or repentance for sin
2) Voluntary self punishment

Mnemonic aid to learn penance:

Penance somehow forma a picture of priests walking in the street harming themselves with sticks and hunters, as if to punish oneself. This act of punishing oneself is called penance.

Usage of penance:

1) Robert practices penance.
2) His actions do not show penance, so there are chances that he is portending.
3) Till today penance in the true sense is practiced by many people in the same way as it was done hundreds of years ago.