Confess

/kənˈfɛs/ · verb

Meaning

(intransitive, transitive) To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed..

Definitions by Sense

1. (intransitive, transitive) To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
2. (transitive) To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
3. (religion) To unburden (oneself) of sins to God or a priest, in order to receive absolution.
4. (transitive, religion) To hear or receive such a confession of sins from.
5. (transitive) To disclose or reveal.
6. (intransitive, chiefly in the context of Japanese media or informal) To profess one's love.

Example Sentences

I confess to spray-painting all over that mural!

I confess that I am a sinner.

I never gave it him. Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.

And there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.

I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.

Sandusky needs to confess his guilt, said an attorney for the person identified in court as Victim No. 4.

In an emotional scene captured on police body camera, he repeatedly confesses to Blodgett’s killing, even telling authorities the weapon he used and where he buried the victim’s body, the arrest affidavit states.

Thirty-six hours later, Perez was on a psychiatric hold in a hospital, having been pressured into confessing he killed his dad and trying to take his own life. […] Judge Gee said the detectives’ tactics “indisputably led to Perez’s subjective confusion and disorientation, to the point that he falsely confessed to killing his father, and tried to take his own life.”

Synonyms for confess

Antonyms for confess

Related Words

Word Forms

• confesses
• confessing
• confessed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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