| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| venial |
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| SYLLABICATION: | ve·ni·al |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  v  n- l, vnyl |
| ADJECTIVE: | 1. Easily excused or forgiven; pardonable: a venial offense. 2. Roman Catholic Church Minor, therefore warranting only temporal punishment. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin veni lis, from Latin venia, forgiveness. See wen-1 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | ve ni·ali·ty (vn- l -t, vn-yl-) , veni·al·ness (vn-l-ns, vnyl-) —NOUN
veni·al·ly —ADVERB
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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