punitive
B2CEFR level
50/100Rarity: uncommon
TechnicalRegister
Law adjective
Of damages, intended to punish the defendant rather than merely to compensate the claimant.
Punitive damages are exceptional in English law, being confined to a few recognised categories.
Business adjective
Intended as a penalty and unusually harsh.
Break the fixed term early and the mortgage carries a punitive redemption charge.
Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.
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