as in punishes
to inflict a penalty on for a fault or crime
the player was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct
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Recent Examples of penalizes
Taboo Words This game penalizes players who say the wrong words.
—
Mary Alice Russell, Southern Living, 28 Dec. 2025
One provision in the law penalizes companies for raising prices too sharply from year to year.
—Berkeley Lovelace Jr, NBC news, 25 Dec. 2025
Another program, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, penalizes gasoline with extra costs that are passed onto drivers.
—Austin Gae, Oc Register, 3 Dec. 2025
Each week during the NFL's regular season, the league penalizes players for their actions in the previous week's games.
—Anne Erickson, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Oct. 2025
The Big 12 Conference is now enforcing a new rule enacted in the offseason that penalizes teams for objects being thrown on the field, and Texas Tech has been forced to institute the ban.
—Jordy Fee-Platt, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2025
The current system incentivizes scofflaws and penalizes people who obey the law.
—Wes Burdine, Twin Cities, 19 Oct. 2025
Thanks to the new ‘Hi-Five’ rule, which penalizes defenders for swiping at hands following through, and re-emphasizes contact to shooters’ legs, Curry shot nine free throws in the first half, all makes, and ended up with 13 attempts from the foul line overall.
—Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 15 Oct. 2025
Uber also penalizes its drivers who cancel trips and can deactivate their accounts if cancellation frequency reaches a predetermined threshold, the complaint states.
—Stuart Dyos, Nashville Tennessean, 22 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for penalizes
punishes
Verb
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The ice punishes the slightest miscalculations, demands the sharpest of focus.—
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The scene came in a fictional segment parodying Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead in which Maggie defends her architectural talents after her daycare teacher punishes her for making beautiful structures from building blocks.—
Cite this Entry
“Penalizes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/penalizes. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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