Penance is something you do to show you're truly sorry for something wrong you've done and to try to make things right. The word comes from religious traditions, where people would perform specific acts like prayer, fasting, or charity to demonstrate genuine remorse and seek forgiveness from God.

If you broke your sister's favorite toy in a fit of anger, simply saying “sorry” might not feel like enough. You might do penance by using your allowance to buy her a replacement, or by doing her chores for a week. These actions show that you understand what you did was wrong and that you're willing to make a real effort to repair the damage.

Penance isn't the same as punishment that someone else forces on you. It's something you choose to do yourself because you feel genuinely bad about what happened. A teacher might punish you for talking in class, but penance is when you voluntarily stay after school to help organize the classroom because you feel sorry for disrupting the lesson.

The word can also describe the act of trying to make amends: “He spent the afternoon doing penance by apologizing to everyone he'd been rude to.” People sometimes use it lightly, like saying “I'm doing penance for eating too much cake by running extra laps,” but the word carries real weight when it's about genuine regret and the desire to do better.