Contextualizebeta

confession

noun
/kənˈfɛʃən/

Etymology

From Middle English confessioun, from Old French confession, from Latin cōnfessiō, cōnfessiōnem (“confession, acknowledgment, creed or avowal of one's faith”). Displaced native Old English andetnes. Doublet of confessio. Morphologically confess + -ion. Sense 6 is a calque of 告白 (kokuhaku).

  1. derived from cōnfessiō — “confession, acknowledgment, creed or avowal of one's faith”
  2. derived from confession
  3. inherited from confessioun

Definitions

  1. The open admittance of having done something (especially something bad).

    • Without the real murderer's confession, an innocent person could be jailed.
    • With a crafty madness keeps aloof, / When we would bring him on to some confession / Of his true state.
    • If you’re looking for juicier confessions – that is, admissions of the kinds of sins unearthed on detective shows or reality TV – then you’ll want to look elsewhere. My sinning life is rather uneventful.

  2. A formal document providing such an admission.

    • He forced me to sign a confession!

  3. The disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution. In the Roman Catholic Church, it…

    The disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is now also termed the sacrament of reconciliation.

    • I went to confession and now I feel much better about what I had done.
    • Hauing diſpleaſ'd my Father, to Lawrence Cell, / To make confeſſion, and to be abſolu'd.
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Acknowledgment of belief

      Acknowledgment of belief; profession of one's faith.

      • With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

    2. A formula in which the articles of faith are comprised

      A formula in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission to membership of a church; a confession of faith.

    3. The act of professing one's love.

The neighborhood

Derived

Aaron's confession, anticonfession, confessional, confession booth, confession box, confessionless, every accusation is a confession, nonconfession

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at confession. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01confession02sacrament03ceremony04ritual05religious06religion07nuns08nun09confessions

A definitional loop anchored at confession. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at confession

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA