penalties
- 1Plural of penalty.
The contract lists several penalties for missing deadlines.
Both teams were called for several penalties during the tense final.
Note
The plural is regular: the final -y becomes -ies, as with any noun ending in a consonant plus -y. It carries every meaning of the singular, including court sentences, punishments for breaking procedure, charges for withdrawing money early, kicks from the penalty spot and time spent off the field. Context alone decides which is meant. One use belongs to the plural only: the shootout.
- 2A method of settling a drawn soccer match in which the two teams take alternating shots at goal from a fixed spot.
The match went to penalties after extra time ended goalless.
England were knocked out on penalties in the semifinal.
Similarshootout
Note
Here the plural is the whole word. No singular form means a shootout, so a match goes to penalties and a team wins or loses on penalties, never "on penalty." It is the casual name, at home in sports talk, and it grew from the kicks themselves: a shootout is a run of penalty kicks, each one still counted among the ordinary plural.
penalties is a form of penalty
penalty, noun: A punishment imposed for failing to follow required rules of procedure, such as missing a deadline or skipping a mandated step. Full entry
- Forms
- penaltypenalties plural
- Spelling
- penalty → penalties: change y to i, add -es
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
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