Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use possession in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Possession means a control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights. Example: “The car quickly became his most prized possession.”

Examples of possession by meaning

nounSomething 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.

nounAn ownership; a taking, a holding, keeping something as one's own.

  • The car is in my possession.
  • I'm in possession of the car.
  • “And once in possession of them what honorable-minded Christmas guest could possibly refrain from contributing them to the cause?1921, The Ladies Home Journal, page 5

nounA territory under the rule of another country.

  • Réunion is the largest of France's overseas possessions.

nounThe 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.

nounA 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

nounA 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.

More sentences with possession

  • A freehold property is an estate in fee simple absolute in possession.From the entry absolute
  • He was charged with two felonies, for possession of Xanax and wax.From the entry wax
  • We were able to save a few of our possessions from the house fire.From the entry save
  • Among the arrests is a man charged with possession of stolen goods, to wit: 50 beer crates.From the entry to wit
  • Actual possession of land gives a good title against a stranger having no title.From the entry stranger
  • Retrieving my dropped possessions from the mud was a degrading experience.From the entry degrading
  • The possession of cilia is an apomorphic trait of this family.From the entry apomorphic
  • They held possession under color of title.From the entry color
  • Possession is nine points of the law.From the entry point
  • David was arrested for illegal possession of firearms.From the entry firearm
  • The best move of the game was when he sacrificed his rook in order to gain better possession.From the entry move
  • The police went through his possessions with a fine-tooth comb.From the entry fine-tooth comb
  • The shopkeeper was plundered of his possessions by the burglar.From the entry plunder
  • The police went through all his possessions with a toothcomb.From the entry toothcomb
  • The imperialist power practiced primitivization on its colonial possessions.From the entry primitivization
  • The possession of burglarous tools is illegal in many jurisdictions.From the entry burglarous
  • Important types of property include real property (land), personal property (other physical possessions), and intellectual property (rights over artistic creations, inventions, etc.).From the entry property
  • No harm came to my possessions.From the entry harm
  • His prized possession was his child.From the entry prized
  • The student who had taken a German exam realised his error afterwards. He had used the dative case instead of the genitive case to show possession.From the entry genitive
  • The possession and use of all fireworks, including safe and sane, are illegal in Nevada County.2026 June 28, Jeremiah Martinez, “Northern California communities that allow, prohibit use of fireworks”, in KCRA. From the entry Nevada County
  • Defensive midfielders have to see things before they happen in and out of possession.2023 March 30, Karen Carney, “Rodri’s Manchester City role shows holding midfielders are key to success”, in The Guardian. From the entry midfielder
  • Stodel put all her possessions in storage, grabbed a backpack, and set off.2023 October 20, Rebecca McPhee, “Big Bothy Walk Completed”, in Australian Associated Press, retrieved 22 Jul 2025. From the entry God loves a trier
  • And for maintenance of pointwork, a six-platform service can be operated whichever throat is under possession.2020 March 25, William Barter, “HS2: Euston or Old Oak Common?”, in Rail, page 58. From the entry pointwork
  • It was the day they were to take possession of their new house in the Glebe.2020, Andre Alexis, Asylum. From the entry take possession
  • She thought it best to at least see if she could salvage any of her lost possessions.2020 February 14, Black Lyte [pseudonym], “A Gift of Savagery”, in Don’t F*ck with the Healer! (Vanta Fantasies; 2), ASIN B084TS14PL. From the entry newbish
  • Adverse possession was a legal maneuver straight out of the Sovereign Citizen canon.2019, Anthony McCann, Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff, Bloomsbury, →ISBN. From the entry adverse possession
  • He touched the ball 11 times despite Spurs taking 62% of possession.2018 September 15, Barney Ronay, “Finely tuned Liverpool are really getting into Jürgen Klopp’s groove”, in The Guardian. From the entry absence
  • How many living diapers are in your collection — Well in my possession I have 2.2018 August 12, @yourfurnovo, Twitter. From the entry living diaper
  • Brazil's greater quality and assurance in possession meant England spent much of the game on the defensive.2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-0 Brazil”, in BBC News. From the entry on the defensive

Meaning of possession

  1. noun A control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
  2. noun Something that is owned.
  3. noun An ownership; a taking, a holding, keeping something as one's own.

Full definition of possession

Questions about possession in a sentence

How do you use possession in a sentence?
Possession is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The car quickly became his most prized possession.”
What is a short sentence with possession?
“His prized possession was his child.”
What does possession mean?
Possession means a control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: possession (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.

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