Compunctious

Definition

Feeling remorse, regret, or guilt — pricked by conscience. Compunctious is not crushing guilt but the precise, specific prick of knowing you did something that fell short of who you want to be.

Beyond the definition

Compunctious was Shakespeare's word — he put it in Macbeth. It carries that precise Shakespearean weight: not abstract guilt, but the physical sensation of conscience pressing against a specific action. You were compunctious about the way you left. Not devastated. Not consumed. Pricked.

Origin & history

From Latin compunctio (pricking, remorse), from compungere (to prick, to sting). English usage from the 16th century. Shakespeare used it in Macbeth: 'Stop up the access and passage to remorse, / That no compunctious visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose.'

Example sentences

Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.

She was compunctious about the way she'd left — not because she was wrong to go, but because her silence had been cruel.

He felt compunctious every time he thought of it — not tortured, just quietly marked.

Compunctious: the word for the conscience doing its job.

Synonyms

remorseful, guilt-pricked, conscience-stung

Antonyms

unrepentant, guiltless, brazen

Related words

• tacenda
• unsaid-weight
• exulansis

Word in the Wild

See how this word appears in life, language and stories.

Illustrative sentences and imagined stories for learning — not verified sightings, interviews, or sourced quotations.

Fictional scene

Reflecting on Incompatible Values

A person looks conflicted between a reusable bag and plastic packaging, standing in a room next to a thriving potted plant.

Compunctious describes a specific prick of conscience or remorse. The person's conflicted expression while holding plastic waste represents the precise, sharp moment of realizing one's own actions have fallen short of their personal standard for environmental care.

Image credit: Wordspun · AI-generated conceptual illustration