indulgence.

1. The allowance of a pleasure, desire, or weakness, sometimes more freely than is wise.

2. In Roman Catholic teaching, a remission of temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• occasional indulgence
• indulgence toward a child

On the page

The dessert was an occasional indulgence rather than a habit.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Countable or uncountable by context; countable singular indulgence; plural indulgences. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.