Past tense of confess
regular verb
The past tense of confess is confessed. The past participle is also confessed.
Forms of confess
| Base form (V1) | confess /kənˈfɛs/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | confessed /kənˈfɛst/ |
| Past participle (V3) | confessed /kənˈfɛst/ |
| Present participle | confessing /kənˈfɛsɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | confesses /kənˈfɛsɪz/ |
Confessed in a sentence
- The minister confessed that many of the deaths were avoidable.From the entry avoidable
- They confessed, but only under severe constraint.From the entry constraint
- There may be a kernel of truth in the story of how George Washington confessed to his father that he chopped down the cherry tree.From the entry kernel of truth
- Ken Barrett, a loyalist gunman who eventually confessed to killing Mr.2023 August 30, Megan K. Stack, Rob Stothard, “He Was Shot 14 Times at the Dinner Table. His Children Want to Know if Britain Ordered the…. From the entry whack
- HAVING confessed my arachnophobia in these pages, I’ve received what could be a life-changing offer.2018 June 25, Alice-Azania Jarvis, “‘Spider courage’ is great in theory...”, in Evening Standard, page 17. From the entry bananaphobia
Meaning of confess
- verb To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
- verb To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
- verb To unburden (oneself) of sins to God or a priest, in order to receive absolution.
Questions about the past tense of confess
- What is the past tense of confess?
- The past tense of confess is confessed.
- What is the past participle of confess?
- The past participle of confess is confessed.
- Is confess a regular or irregular verb?
- Confess is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: confess (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of confess.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/confess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.