"penalty" in the noun sense
1. punishment, penalty, penalization, penalisation
the act of punishing
2. penalty
a payment required for not fulfilling a contract
3. penalty
the disadvantage or painful consequences of an action or condition
"neglected his health and paid the penalty"
4. penalty
games) a handicap or disadvantage that is imposed on a competitor (or a team) for an infraction of the rules of the game
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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