possession

/pəˈzɛʃn̩/

possession noun: a control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.

Noun

possession (countable and uncountable, plural possessions)

A control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
- Once complete, guide rails will be installed inside the tunnels ready for the box jack itself - which NR intends to push into place during a nine-day engineering possession in September, following a trial push in late August. [...] A small number of weekday and weekend possessions will also be...2020 April 8, Paul Stephen, “ECML dive-under drives divergence”, in Rail, page 44
Something that is owned.
- The car quickly became his most prized possession.
- I would gladly give all of my worldly possessions just to be able to do that.
Synonyms:

ight, aught, belongings, owndom, property, propriety
An ownership; a taking, a holding, keeping something as one's own.
- The car is in my possession.
- I'm in possession of the car.
Synonyms:

owndom, retention, ownership, proprietorship, propriety

Antonyms:

absence
A territory under the rule of another country.
- Réunion is the largest of France's overseas possessions.
The condition or affliction of being possessed by a demon or other supernatural entity.
- Back then, people with psychiatric disorders were sometimes thought to be victims of demonic possession.
- How long hath this possession held the man?c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
Synonyms:

enthusiasm
The condition of being under the control of strong emotion or madness.
A control of the ball; the opportunity to be on the offensive.
- The scoreboard shows a little football symbol next to the name of the team that has possession.
- Their first half was marred by the entire side playing too deep, completely unable to build up any form of decent possession once the ball left their bewildered defence.2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC
(Australian rules football) A disposal of the ball during a game, i.e. a kick or a handball.
- 2019 In the mix: Who's pushing for selection for round eight? Australian Football League, 7 May 2019. Accessed 7 May 2019.
  Defender Colin O'Riordan had 41 possessions in the NEAFL last week to continue his outstanding form, while Ryan Clarke had 47 in the Swans' big loss to Brisbane.
A syntactic relationship between two nouns or nominals that may be used to indicate ownership.
- Some languages distinguish between a construction like 'my car', which shows alienable possession — the car could become someone else's — and one like 'my foot', which has inalienable possession — my foot will always be mine.
(Commonwealth) closure of a section of track for maintenance works.

Verb

possession (third-person singular simple present possessions, present participle possessioning, simple past and past participle possessioned)

(obsolete, transitive) To invest with property.

possession meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

possession in Hindi

possession: समावेश samāveś
possession, or affliction: बाधा bādhā

possession in Tamil

உடைமை, உடைமைப் பொருள், உடைமைப்பொருள், துய்ப்புரிமை

possession in Marathi

possession, control: ताबा tābā

possession in Urdu

possession, hold, grip: قابو qābū
possession: ملکیت milikiyyat, خزانہ xazāna

More languagesFewer languages

possession in Bengali: আসর asôr
possession in Telugu: ఆవేశము āvēśamu
possession in Malayalam: ബാധ bādha
possession in Kannada: ಹಿಡುವಳಿ, ಹಿಡುವಳಿಗೆ, ಒಳವು, ಒಡೆ
possession in Gujarati: કબજો
possession in Odia: ଅଧିକାର adhikāra
possession in Sanskrit: संभोग saṃbhóga, भजन bhajana, समावेश samāveśa
possession in Nepali: अधिकार adhikār
possession in Arabic: مَسّ mass, تَلَبُّس talabbus, حَوْزَة ḥawza, مُمْتَلَك mumtalak
possession in Indonesian: kerasukan, kesurupan
possession in Thai: การถูกสิง, การครอบครอง gaan-krɔ̂ɔp-krɔɔng
possession in Myanmar: ဥစ္စာ ucca
Kashmiri: پرٛاہ prāh

Examples of possession in a sentence

A freehold property is an estate in fee simple absolute in possession.
He was charged with two felonies, for possession of Xanax and wax.
We were able to save a few of our possessions from the house fire.

All 40 example sentences with possession

Synonyms of possession

Antonyms

absence

All synonyms and antonyms of possession

Forms of possession

Noun
plural	possessions
Verb
third-person singular present	possessions
present participle	possessioning
past participle	possessioned
past	possessioned

Plural of possession: possessions

Origin of possession

From Latin possessiō, possessiōnis. Equivalent to possess + -ion.

Phrases with possession

Words that rhyme with possession

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about possession

What does possession mean?: Possession means a control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
What is possession in Hindi?: Possession in Hindi is समावेश (samāveś), बाधा (bādhā). See Possession meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is possession?: Possession can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce possession?: Possession is pronounced /pəˈzɛʃn̩/.
What is the plural of possession?: The plural of possession is possessions.

Words near possession in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-possession.ogg.

Cite this entry: “possession.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/possession. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.