confess
pronunciation
How to pronounce confess in British English:
UK [kənˈfes]
How to pronounce confess in American English:
US [kənˈfes]
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- Verb:
- confess to a punishable or reprehensible deed, usually under pressure
- admit, make a clean breast of
- confess to God in the presence of a priest, as in the Catholic faith
Word Origin
- confess
- confess: [14] Confess comes from Latin confitērī ‘acknowledge’. This was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and fatērī ‘admit’ (a relative of English fable, fame, and fate). Its past participle was confessus, and this was taken as the basis of a new Vulgar Latin verb *confessāre, which passed into English via Old French confesser.=> fable, fame, fate
- confess (v.)
- late 14c., from Old French confesser (transitive and intransitive), from Vulgar Latin *confessare, from Latin confess-, past participle stem of confiteri "to acknowledge," from com- "together" (see com-) + fateri "to admit," akin to fari "speak," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say" (see fame (n.)). Its original religious sense was of one who avows his religion in spite of persecution or danger but does not suffer martyrdom. Old French confesser thus had a figurative sense of "to harm, hurt, make suffer." Related: Confessed; confessing. An Old English word for it was andettan.
Synonym
Antonym
Example
- 1. I confess I was long seduced by it .
- 2. The police hoped he would confess to a crime he didn 't commit .
- 3. Confess your gross running habits or complain about others in the comments section below .
- 4. Wyatt gets bennett to confess that sara is in los angeles . Wyatt then kills him .
- 5. But as to exactly how this transact ion occurs , we confess to having some questions .