Wordwyrt

confession

/kənˈfeʃən/kuhn-FEH-shuhn
/kənˈfɛʃən/kuhn-FEH-shuhn

Meaningthe act of fully admitting

Common meaning: admitting a fault or crime

‘with, together’ + ‘to own up, admit’ → confession

Journey through time

  1. Latinfateor, fassus‘to own up, admit’
  2. Old Frenchconfessersource
  3. Middle Englishconfessensource
  4. Englishconfess‘to admit a fault’
  5. Englishformed in English from confessconfession‘admitting a fault or crime’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Formed in English from confess + -ion.

Dictionary: Skeat (1898), CONFESS, p.128 · scan

Roots

Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app