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.

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How to use confess in a sentence?

1. Anthony Ghosn:

   Every day when he wakes up in the detention center, he can tell the prosecutor that he challenges the accusations against him, or on the contrary, he can confess and be released, for seven weeks, his decision has been quite clear. ... He will not give up.

2. Saint Jerome:

   The face is the mirror of the mind and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart. -St. Jerome

3. Penn Badgley:

   The point of my comment was not to confess a personal trauma, i was speaking about the way emotional and physical boundaries are violated for someone in the public eye, who is seen as an object of desire. Depending on so many factors, it can range from conscious abuse to something very unconscious -- and that is the point I was making, cautiously, in the context of a conversation about fanaticism and cultural norms which support manipulative or abusive behavior. These are the same norms which support predatory men, but not exclusively predatory men. They affect, and infect, us all.

4. The British-born Avner:

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

5. Ted Cruz:

   One portion of the book says,' Babies are taught to be racist or antiracist -- there is no neutrality.' Another portion of the book : They recommend that babies' confess when being racist,'.