How to use possess in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Possess means to have (something) as, or as if as, an owner; to have, to own. Example: “He does not even possess a working telephone.”

Examples of possess by meaning

verbTo have (something) as, or as if as, an owner; to have, to own.

He does not even possess a working telephone.
Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, London: The Bodley Head, →OCLC
The twin tracks, after traversing a scissors crossover, become the down and up roads through the station, which possesses an extensive goods yard.1951 September, B. D. J. Walsh, “The Sudbury and Haverhill Line, Eastern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 619

verbOf an idea, thought, etc.: to dominate (someone's mind); to strongly influence.

A horrid mistrust of the whole house possessed me.1919, Joseph Conrad, chapter VII, in The Arrow of Gold: A Story between Two Notes, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, […], →OCLC, part V, page...
I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 1, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 17

verbOf a supernatural entity, especially one regarded as evil: to take control of (an animal or person's body or mind).

They thought he was possessed by evil spirits.
Had I lived in the Middle Ages I am certain I would have believed that a talking bird must be possessed by the devil.1919, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Arrow of Gold: A Story between Two Notes, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, […], →OCLC, part IV, page...
"But whatever it is that makes us remember the good old days, it also makes us impossible to possess now.2023 October 14, HarryBlank, “Face Time”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 23 May 2024

verbOf a person: to control or dominate (oneself or someone, or one's own or someone's heart, mind, etc.).

I tried to possess my soul in patience, and to forget how hungry I was.1915 August–September, John Buchan, “The Adventure of the Bald Archæologist”, in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Edinburgh; London: William...

verbTo dominate (a person) sexually; to have sexual intercourse with (a person).

She would surrender herself avidly, he thought, and greedily enjoy all the intimacies of the bed without ever allowing herself to be possessed.1953, Ian Fleming, “Tide of Passion”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 167

verbTo cause an idea, thought, etc., to strongly affect or influence (someone); to inspire, to preoccupy.

What on earth possessed you to go walking by the quarry at midnight?

verbChiefly followed by of or with: to vest ownership of something in (oneself or someone); to bestow upon, to endow.

I stole into his state-room and possessed myself of his revolvers.1904, Jack London, chapter 32, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC

More sentences with possess

In the 21st century, almost all leading countries of the world possess annihilative atomic weapons.From the entry annihilative
This study concerns all infaunal brachiopods that possess an inarticulate, organo-phosphatic, linguliform shell.From the entry linguliform
Resistors possess resistance and inductors possess inductance.From the entry -or
You do not possess the certifications required for this post.From the entry certification
Dogs possess a highly developed olfactory system.From the entry olfactory
Orchid bees are the only group of corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess eusocial behavior.From the entry orchid bee
Deer, camels and peccaries possess paraxonic feet.From the entry paraxonic
Other potential adversaries, including China and North Korea, possess similar capabilities.2025 November 19, Mike Cherney, “The Pentagon Can’t Trust GPS Anymore. Is Quantum Physics the Answer? New devices navigate without…. From the entry military
Similarily, the femosphere possesses intellectual mouthpieces who cloak reactionary perspectives with an intellectual and scientific façade.2025, Cécile Smmons, CTRL HATE DELETE: The New Anti-Feminist Backlash and How We Fight It, unnumbered page. From the entry femosphere
These two events are called when this player controller possesses and unpossesses a pawn.2021, Kassandra Arevalo, Matthew Tovar, Jingtian Li, Creating Games with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter, & Maya, pages 12-156. From the entry unpossess
Scientists believe short-sleepers are actually super-sleepers in that they possess the abililty to access deeper REM states.2018, Jack McBain, People and Life, page 68. From the entry super-sleeper
Living species of the externally shelled nautiluses do not possess an ink sac.2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian, archived from the…. From the entry nautilus
This would inspire such pseudoexplanations as “He leads because he possesses leadership qualities.”2017, Bradford P. Keeney, Aesthetics of Change, page 38. From the entry dormitive principle
Speleotherapy is based on the in-patient treatment in salt caves possessing a specific microclimate.2017, Helga Stan-Lotter, Sergiu Fendrihan, editors, Adaption of Microbial Life to Environmental Extremes, Springer, →ISBN, page 220. From the entry speleotherapy
Different studies indicate that they possess some evolutionary mechanisms to combat toxic situation.2016, “Chapter 15: Role of Aspergillus in bioremediation process”, in Vijai Kumar Gupta, editor, New and Future Developments in Microbial…. From the entry bioremediation
Every year, thousands of citizens get a criminal record for possessing dope.2016 March 11, Janet Street-Porter, “The Lib Dems should vote to legalise drugs. That would give us something to smile about – and believe…. From the entry little fingernail
However, a few hymenopterans and hemipteroids do possess the ancestral insect mitogenome gene order.2015 July 31, “The Asian Rice Gall Midge ( Orseolia oryzae ) Mitogenome Has Evolved Novel Gene Boundaries and Tandem Repeats That…. From the entry hemipteroid
Albumin receptors megalin and cubilin both possess long extracytosolic domain floating in the urinary space.2015 October 15, “Akt Links Insulin Signaling to Albumin Endocytosis in Proximal Tubule Epithelial Cells”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry extracytosolic
The fibular condyle projects laterally and possesses a shallow notch in the midposterior part.2015 December 17, “A New Sail-Backed Styracosternan (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Early Cretaceous of Morella, Spain”, in PLOS ONE…. From the entry midposterior
This outcome certainly marks compound 2a as possessing a strong disilanide character.2015 July 1, Rainer Zitz et al., “Neutral “Cp-Free” Silyl-Lanthanide(II) Complexes: Synthesis, Structure, and Bonding Analysis”, in…. From the entry disilanide
Finally, we construct some examples of nearly associative varieties that do not possess finite basic superranks..2015, Alexey Kuz'min, Ivan Shestakov, “Basic superranks for varieties of algebras”, in arXiv. From the entry superranks
Such materials possess deeply subdiffractional, highly directional collective modes: hyperbolic phonon-polaritons.2015, Jhih-Sheng Wu, D. N. Basov, M. M. Fogler, “Topological insulators are tunable waveguides for hyperbolic polaritons”, in arXiv. From the entry subdiffractional
Two vault tellers each possess one half of the combination to the vault.2015, Peter Gregory, CISSP Guide to Security Essentials, →ISBN, page 258. From the entry separation of duties
Pure (electrolytic) iron possesses the recalescent properties, but ferro-manganese does not.2015, C. E. Stromeyer, Marine Boiler Construction and Management, →ISBN, page 115. From the entry recalescent
Possessing The Quraan and professing “Muslimship” do not make righteous people.2013, Mu Octavis Taalib, How to Study the Quraan, page 23. From the entry Muslimship
Why should a Chladni plate, possessing many inharmonic mode frequences, set up a cooperative resonance when bowed?2013, Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear what You Hear: An Experiential Approach to Sound, Music, and Psychoacoustics, Princeton University…. From the entry Chladni plate
Now, according to the conditions of the problem, the substances of the mixture possess different sorbabilities.2012, Vladimir V. Rachinskii, The General Theory of Sorption Dynamics and Chromatography, →ISBN. From the entry sorbability
Find the largest, flattest frying pan you possess, or a crêpière.2011, Kerstin Rodgers, “Crêpes”, in Supper Club: Recipes and Notes from The Underground Restaurant, London: Collins, →ISBN, part 2 (The…. From the entry crêpière

Meaning of possess

verb To have (something) as, or as if as, an owner; to have, to own.
verb Of an idea, thought, etc.: to dominate (someone's mind); to strongly influence.
verb Of a supernatural entity, especially one regarded as evil: to take control of (an animal or person's body or mind).

Full definition of possess

Questions about possess in a sentence

How do you use possess in a sentence?: Possess is used as a verb. For example: “He does not even possess a working telephone.”
What is a short sentence with possess?: “Deer, camels and peccaries possess paraxonic feet.”
What does possess mean?: Possess means to have (something) as, or as if as, an owner; to have, to own.

Adapted from Wiktionary: possess (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use possess in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/possess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.