Confess

How to spell confess

7 letters · 2 syllables

11 of the 121 people asked to spell confess in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce confess

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does confess mean?

1. verbTo admit or openly acknowledge a fault, crime, secret, or feeling that one would rather keep hidden.

Confess in a sentence

• He decided to confess that he had broken the vase before anyone asked.

• Under questioning the suspect chose to confess to the robbery.

Where does confess come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb confiteri, meaning 'to acknowledge fully' or 'to own up to something'. It was formed from the intensifying prefix con- combined with fateri, which meant 'to admit' or 'to declare openly'. The past participle stem of confiteri was confessus, and it is this -fess- form that English inherited, which explains the double-s spelling rather than the -t- of the root. English picked the word up in the 1300s through Old French confesser, where it carried a strongly religious flavour: to confess one's sins to a priest. From that devotional sense it broadened to the everyday meaning of admitting any fault, secret, or truth. The same fateri root also surfaces in the related word 'profess', which originally meant to declare something publicly.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive, fully)
• fess (from Latin fateri/fess-, to acknowledge or declare)