Sanctions is the plural of sanction. (Depending on context, a sanction can be either a punishment or a permission. The word is a contronym.)

Sanctions involving countries:

• International sanctions, punitive measures adopted by a country or group of countries against another nation for political reasons
  • Diplomatic sanctions, the reduction or removal of diplomatic ties, such as embassies
  • Economic sanctions, typically a ban on trade, possibly limited to certain sectors such as armaments, or with certain exceptions (such as food and medicine)
  • Military sanctions, military intervention
• Trade sanctions, economic sanctions applied for non-political reasons, typically as part of a trade dispute, or for purely economic reasons, and typically involving tariffs or similar measures, rather than bans.

Other meanings:

• In a legal context, sanctions are penalties imposed by the courts.
• In a sociology context, sanction may refer to social control.
• Sanction, a fictional city situated in Dragonlance settings

Sanktion | Sanción | Sanction | Sanctie | Санкция | Sanktion