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# penalise

«penalise» in Mova's school dictionary: **to punish them for breaking a rule or law, for example…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (penalise, penalises, penalised, penalising)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To penalise someone is to punish them for breaking a rule or law, for example with a penalty, a fine or lost points. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#m1)

2) To penalise can also mean to put someone at an unfair disadvantage. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In sport, a referee penalises a player for a foul by giving a free kick or penalty. In school, pupils may be penalised for late homework by losing marks. In law and money, people are penalised with fines. In ethics and fairness, a rule may unfairly penalise some people. Phrases: "be penalised for", "penalise heavily", "unfairly penalised".

### examples

- The referee penalised the team for a high tackle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#x1)
- You will be penalised if you hand in your project late. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#x2)
- Drivers are penalised for speeding. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#x3)
- The judges penalised the dancer for stepping off the stage. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#x4)
- (formal) The new rule penalises families who live far from school. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#x5)
- In the quiz, wrong answers are penalised with minus one point. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#x6)
- He was penalised two points for poor spelling. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/#x7)

### note

British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand spelling: penalise; American and often Canadian spelling: penalize. Noun: penalty. In maths problems, a penalty is usually subtracted: if you get 12 points and are penalised 3, you have 12 − 3 = 9.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «penalise» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penalise/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.