confess
/kənˈfɛs/
confess verb: to admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
Verb
confess (third-person singular simple present confesses, present participle confessing, simple past and past participle confessed)
- To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
- I confess to spray-painting all over that mural!
- I confess that I am a sinner.
- To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
- Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess, also, before my Father which is in heaven.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 10:32
- For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 23:8
- To unburden (oneself) of sins to God or a priest, in order to receive absolution.
- If we confesse our sinnes, hee is faithfull, & iust to forgiue vs our sinnes, and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 John 1:9
- Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father.1710 September 17 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, September 7, 1710”, in The Spectator, number 1647; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The...
- To hear or receive such a confession of sins from.
- He […] heard mass, and the prince, his son, with him, and the most part of his company were confessed.1523–1525, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (translator), Froissart's Chronicles
- A jealous man confesses his wife under a priest's habit, who tells him that she is visited every night by a friar; […]1867, W. K. Kelly, The Decameron: or ten day's entertainment of Boccaccio. A revised translation
- To disclose or reveal.
- Tall thriving trees confess;d the fruitful mould.1725, Homer, “Book VII”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
- To profess one's love.
confess meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
confess in Tamil
- to confess
- அறிக்கைபண்ணு aṟikkaipaṇṇu
confess in Urdu
- to confess; admit
- ماننا mānnā
confess in Bengali
- স্বীকার করা
confess in Telugu
- to confess
- చాటు cāṭu
More languagesFewer languages
- confess in Malayalam
- കുറ്റം സമ്മതിക്കുക, കുറ്റം ഏറ്റുപറയുക, കുമ്പസാരിക്കുക
- confess in Kannada
- ತಪ್ಪೊಪ್ಪಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಮಾಡಿದ್ದನ್ನು ಹೇಳು
- confess in Gujarati
- કબૂલાત કરવા
- confess in Nepali
- मान्नु mānnu
- confess in Tagalog
- mangumpisal
- confess in Arabic
- اِعْتَرَفَ iʕtarafa, أَقَرَّ ʔaqarra
- confess in Persian
- خستو شدن xostu šodan
- confess in Thai
- สารภาพ sǎa-rá-pâap
- confess in Vietnamese
- thú nhận
Examples of confess in a sentence
- Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies...
- And there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
- I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- Sandusky needs to confess his guilt, said an attorney for the person identified in court as Victim No. 4.2012 October 8, Susan Candiotti and Jason Carroll, “Jerry Sandusky proclaims his innocence in jailhouse audio recording”, in CNN:
Synonyms of confess
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of confess
| third-person singular present | confesses |
|---|---|
| present participle | confessing |
| past participle | confessed |
| past | confessed |
Origin of confess
From Middle English confessen, from Anglo-Norman confesser, from Old French confesser, from Latin confessus (Old French confés), past participle of cōnfiteor (“to confess, admit”) from con- + fateor (“to admit”). Displaced Middle English andetten (“to confess, admit”) (from Old English andettan). Doublet of confiteor. Sense 6 is a semantic loan from Japanese 告(こく)白(はく) (kokuhaku).
Words formed from confess
Phrases with confess
Words that rhyme with confess
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- SMS
- success
- compress
- largesse
- ness
- profess
- distress
- regress
- depress
- excess
- guess
- prepossess
- undress
- CBS
- ingress
- oppress
- redress
- transgress
- assess
- cess
- duress
- fess
- fluoresce
- Hesse
- less
- mayoress
- obsess
- tress
- unless
- yes
- accresce
- acquiesce
- aggress
- BESS
- caress
- clothes press
- congress
- defervesce
- digress
- ess
- foulness
- Hess
- intumesce
- jess
- lazy S
- liquesce
- repress
- second-guess
Questions about confess
- What does confess mean?
- Confess means to admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
- What is confess in Tamil?
- Confess in Tamil is அறிக்கைபண்ணு (aṟikkaipaṇṇu). See Confess meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use confess in a sentence?
- Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.
- What part of speech is confess?
- Confess is a verb.
- How do you pronounce confess?
- Confess is pronounced /kənˈfɛs/.
- What is the past tense of confess?
- The past tense of confess is confessed.
Words near confess in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: confess (page history and authors); அறிக்கைபண்ணு (Tamil) (page history and authors); ماننا (Urdu) (page history and authors); confess (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); చాటు (Telugu) (page history and authors); confess (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); confess (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); confess (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); मान्नु (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-confess.ogg.
Cite this entry: “confess.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/confess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.