Synonyms for confess
kənˈfɛscon·fess

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:2.0 / 1 vote

1. confess

   We accept another's statement; admit any point made against us; acknowledge what we have said or done, good or bad; avow our individual beliefs or feelings; certify to facts within our knowledge; confess our own faults; endorse a friend's note or statement; grant a request; own our faults or obligations; recognize lawful authority; concede a claim. Confess has a high and sacred use in the religious sense; as, to confess Christ before men. It may have also a playful sense (often with to); as, one confesses to a weakness for confectionery. The chief present use of the word, however, is in the sense of making known to others one's own wrong-doing; in this sense confess is stronger than acknowledge or admit, and more specific than own; a person admits a mistake; acknowledges a fault; confesses sin or crime. Compare APOLOGY; AVOW.

   Synonyms:
   accept, acknowledge, admit, allow, avow, certify, concede, disclose, endorse, grant, own, recognize

   Antonyms:
   cloak, conceal, cover, deny, disavow, disguise, disown, dissemble, dissimulate, hide, mask, repudiate, screen, secrete, veil

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:1.0 / 1 vote

1. confess

   Synonyms:
   avow, aver, own, reveal, disclose, acknowledge

   Antonyms:
   disaver, disavow, suppress, silentiate, deny

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:1.0 / 5 votes

1. confess, squeal, finkverb

   confess to a punishable or reprehensible deed, usually under pressure

   Synonyms:
   oink, scab, fink, squeal, concede, profess, blackleg, rat

2. concede, profess, confessverb

   admit (to a wrongdoing)

   "She confessed that she had taken the money"

   Synonyms:
   yield, cede, pretend, grant, concede, profess, fink, squeal

3. confessverb

   confess to God in the presence of a priest, as in the Catholic faith

   Synonyms:
   fink, concede, squeal, profess

Matched Categories

1. • Admit

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. confessverb

   Synonyms:
   acknowledge (as a crime or fault), own, avow

2. confessverb

   Synonyms:
   admit, grant, concede, recognize

3. confessverb

   Synonyms:
   attest, prove, show, exhibit, manifest, be proof of

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. confessverb

   Synonyms:
   acknowledge, own, admit, avow, divulge, disclose, reveal

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:2.0 / 1 vote

1. List of paraphrases for "confess":

   admit, recognise, acknowledge, confession, say, recognize

Suggested Resources

1. Confess

   Admit vs. Confess -- In this Grammar.com article you will learn the differences between the words Admit and Confess.

How to pronounce confess?

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Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use confess in a sentence?

1. Andrea Velez:

   I confess that I sinned, but I paid a high price for my faults.

2. Voltaire:

   I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.

3. Yolanda Pinto:

   This shows that the FARC is fulfilling its promise and that they are willing to confess to the victims, i feel satisfied that this will help heal.

4. The British-born Avner:

   However, I never threw away those scribbles. I confess I was naughty.

5. Police Carl Frost:

   I look forward to the day that, hopefully, he'll sit down and just go right down the line and confess to every one of them that he did, he's probably the most prolific African American serial killer in U.S. history, I would say.