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View synonyms for confession

confession

[ kuhn-fesh-uhn ]

noun

  1. acknowledgment; avowal; admission:

    a confession of incompetence.

  2. acknowledgment or disclosure of sin or sinfulness, especially to a priest to obtain absolution.
  3. something that is confessed.
  4. a formal, usually written, acknowledgment of guilt by a person accused of a crime.
  5. Also called confession of faith. a formal profession of belief and acceptance of doctrines, as before being admitted to church membership.
  6. the tomb of a martyr or confessor or the altar or shrine connected with it.


confession

/ kənˈfɛʃən /

noun

  1. the act of confessing
  2. something confessed
  3. an acknowledgment or declaration, esp of one's faults, misdeeds, or crimes
  4. Christianity RC Church the act of a penitent accusing himself or herself of his or her sins
  5. confession of faith
    confession of faith a formal public avowal of religious beliefs
  6. a religious denomination or sect united by a common system of beliefs


confession

  1. In some church es, notably the Roman Catholic Church , a sacrament in which repentant sinners individually or as a group privately confess their sins in front of a priest and receive absolution from the guilt of their sins. In the first few centuries of Christianity , repentant sinners were assigned public penances: sinners had to stay outside the entrance of the church and ask the people going inside to pray for them. The period of public penance could be shortened through an indulgence .


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Derived Forms

  • conˈfessionary, adjective

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Other Words From

  • precon·fession noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of confession1

1350–1400; < Latin confessiōn- (stem of confessiō ), equivalent to confess- ( confess ) + -iōn- -ion; replacing Middle English confessioun < Anglo-French

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Example Sentences

Outside of Iran, Rigi's “confession” seemed like another in the long tradition of statements extracted from prisoners there.

In the course of his confession, he supplied details that should only have been known to the killer.

His belief that officers really did find his fingerprints at the scene seems to have encouraged his false confession.

And that confession is said by police to have been just the start.

He signed a written confession after an hour and 45 minutes.

It was on an occasion of the death of a man in this city by stabbing, who begged loudly for confession.

They will try to compel you to confession; and, though you are blameless, you will suffer the cruelest ordeal of transgression.

The narrative had excited him out of his apathy and physical exhaustion, the confession shaken the rigidity from his mind.

And the question would always remain if the highest honor would not have commanded confession.

Was it the threat of Tony's near arrival that made her confession—and his dismissal—at last inevitable?

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