confessionnoun [ C or U ]
uk/kənˈfeʃ.ən/us/kənˈfeʃ.ən/B2 the act of admitting that you have done something wrong or illegal:
I have a confession to make - I've lost that book you lent me.
I can't ask for help. It feels like a confession of failure.
Confession is the first stage of coming to terms with what you've done.
He made a full confession to the police.
an occasion when a Christian tells God or, especially in the Roman Catholic Church, tells a priest formally and privately, what they have done wrong so that they can be forgiven:
Have you been to confession recently?
The priest heard his confession.
More examples
- After being questioned by the police for two days, Johnson signed a confession.
- The two men allege that the police forced them to make false confessions.
- One day he just walked into his local police station and made a full confession.
- It was such an extraordinary confession that I couldn't think what to say in reply.
- Her confession was no surprise to him, as he had long suspected that she had a secret lover.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Admitting & confessing
- acknowledge
- acknowledgment
- admit
- admittedly
- avow
- back down
- climb
- come clean idiom
- concessionary
- eat
- eat your words idiom
- hand
- I stand corrected idiom
- make a clean breast of it idiom
- own up
- retract
- say
- self-confessed
- swallow
- take sth back
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Religious concepts: forgiveness in religion
Religious practices