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Satisfaction vs Retribution - What's the difference?

satisfaction | retribution | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between satisfaction and retribution

is that satisfaction is a fulfillment of a need or desire while retribution is punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance.

satisfaction

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A fulfillment of a need or desire.
  • :
  • The pleasure obtained by such fulfillment.
  • *(Henry David Thoreau) (1817-1862)
  • *:This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction .
  • *
  • *:Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction , looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.
  • The source of such gratification.
  • A reparation for an injury or loss.
  • A vindication for a wrong suffered.
  • retribution

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance.
  • *1983 , Richard A. Posner, The economics of justice m p.208:
  • *:Whereas retribution focuses on the offender's wrong, retaliation focuses on the impulse of the victim (or of those who sympathize with him) to strike back at the offender.
  • * 1999 , , Medieval crime and social control , p.73:
  • *:1. Revenge is for an injury; retribution is for a wrong.
  • *:2. Retribution sets an internal limit to the amount of the punishment according to the seriousness of the wrong; revenge need not.
  • *:3. Revenge is personal; the agent of retribution need have no special or personal tie to the victim of the wrong for which he exacts retribution.
  • *:4. Revenge involves a particular emotional tone, pleasure in the suffering of another, while retribution need involve no emotional tone.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Hypernyms

    * punishment

    Derived terms

    * retributionist * retributive