THESAURUS
penitence
Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, abject apology, acknowledgment, anguish, apology, asceticism, attrition, breast-beating, change of heart, cold purgatorial fires, compunction, confession, contriteness, contrition, deathbed repentance, debasement, degradation, distress, excuse, fasting, flagellation, grief, hair shirt, heartfelt apology, humbling, humiliation, lustration, maceration, mea culpa, mortification, penance, penitential act, penitential exercise, penitently, purgation, purgatory, qualm, reformation, regret, regretfulness, regrets, remorse, remorsefulness, repentance, rue, ruefulness, ruth, sackcloth and ashes, sadness, saeta, scruple, self-accusation, self-punishment, self-reproach, shame, sorrow, sorrowfulness, wearing a hairshirt
ROGET THESAURUS
penitence
Regret
N
regret, repining, homesickness, nostalgia, mal du pays, maladie, lamentation,
penitence, bitterness, heartburning, recrimination (accusation), laudator temporis acti, regretting, regretful, homesick, regretted, much to be regretted, regrettable, lamentable, regrettably, unfortunately, most unfortunately, Int, alas!, what a pity!, hang it!, 'tis pity, 'tis too true, sigh'd and look'd and sigh'd again, I'm sorry.
Penitence
N
penitence, contrition, compunction, repentance, remorse, regret, self-reproach, self-reproof, self-accusation, self-condemnation, self-humiliation, stings of conscience, pangs of conscience, qualms of conscience, prickings of conscience, twinge of conscience, twitch of conscience, touch of conscience, voice of conscience, compunctious visitings of nature, acknowledgment, confession, apology, recantation, penance, resipiscence, awakened conscience, deathbed repentance, locus paenitentiae, stool of repentance, cuttystool, penitent, repentant, Magdalen, prodigal son, a sadder and a wiser man, penitent, repenting, repentant, contrite, conscience- smitten, conscience-stricken, self-accusing, self-convicted, penitential, penitentiary, reclaimed, reborn, not hardened, unhardened, mea culpa, peccavi, erubuit, salva res est, Tu l'as voulu, Georges Dandin, and wet his grave with my repentant tears.