Definition of "venial" []

• Easily excused or forgiven; pardonable: a venial offense. (adjective)
• Roman Catholic Church Minor, therefore warranting only temporal punishment. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "“Those sins are called venial sins,” Mary Catherine continues."
• "Rome teaches, that is, purificatory and punitive), but probatory, not restricted to those dying in "venial sin"; the supposed intermediate class between those entering heaven at once, and those dying in mortal sin who go to hell, but universal, testing the godly and ungodly alike"
• "To his mind, the venial were the more numerous, but then, he had been a cynic for many years now."