Word.ws English Dictionary

confessant

confessant noun: one who confesses to a priest.

Noun

confessant (plural confessants)

  1. (obsolete) One who confesses to a priest.
    • [T]he poſture of the Confeſſant and the Prieſt in Confeſsion: which is, that the Confeſſant kneeles downe before the Prieſt ſitting in a raiſed chaire aboue him.1625, Francis [Bacon], “[Apophthegm 213]”, in Apophthegmes New and Old. […], London: […] Hanna Barret, and Richard Whittaker, […], →OCLC, page 234
    • In 2013, though, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that clergy were required to report abuse because confessants "cannot have an objectively reasonable expectation that such a statement will remain confidential."2019 July 18, Jacob Wallace, “In 44 States, Clergy Don't Have to Tell Police When Someone Confesses to Child Sex Abuse”, in Newsweek
    Synonyms:
    penitent

Synonyms of confessant

Forms of confessant

pluralconfessants

Origin of confessant

From French confessant, equivalent to confess + -ant.

Questions about confessant

What does confessant mean?
Confessant means one who confesses to a priest.
What part of speech is confessant?
Confessant is a noun.
What is the plural of confessant?
The plural of confessant is confessants.

Words near confessant in the dictionary

  1. confervous
  2. confervæ
  3. confess
  4. confess'd
  5. confessable
  6. confessant
  7. confessants
  8. confessaries
  9. confessarii
  10. confessarius
  11. confessary

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: confessant (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.

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