Wordwyrt

confessional

/kənˈfeʃənəl/kuhn-FEH-shuh-nuhl
/kənˈfɛʃənəl/kuhn-FEH-shuh-nuhl

Meaningrelating to fully admitting

Common meaning: relating to confession

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

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’
  6. Englishformed in English from confessionconfessional‘relating to confession’ · today

Sources & notes

Inferred source: no dictionary we use has an entry for this exact word. Its history is worked out from closely related, listed words in the same family, and we are trusting that link, so bear that in mind. Inferred meaning: relating to fully admitting. It can be inferred from any of: confession.

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 confession + -al (inferred: this exact word is not listed in our dictionaries).

Roots

Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app