1. the act or process of confessing.
2. something confessed, especially disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution.
3. A written or oral statement acknowledging guilt, made by one who has been accused or charged with an offense.
4. an avowal of belief in the doctrines of a particular faith; a creed.
5. A church or group of worshipers adhering to a specific creed.

1. the open admittance of having done something (especially of something bad).
2. the disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution. now termed the sacrament of reconciliation.

1. acknowledgment; avowal, especially in a matter pertaining to one's self; the admission of a debt, obligation, or crime.
2. acknowledgment of belief; profession of one's faith.
3. the act of disclosing sins or faults to a priest in order to obtain sacramental absolution.
4. A formulary in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission to membership of a church; a confession of faith.
5. an admission by a party to whom an act is imputed, in relation to such act. A judicial confession settles the issue to which it applies; an extrajudical confession may be explained or rebutted.

1. the act of confessing.
2. the act of making an avowal; profession.
3. eccles., a disclosing of sins or faults to a priest; the disburdening of the conscience privately to a confessor: often called auricular confession. in both the eastern and the western church confession is one of the four parte of the sacrament of penance, viz., contrition, confession, absolution, and satisfaction. see sacramental confession.
4. in common law, an admission or acknowledgment of guilt. A judicial confession is a confession made in court, or before an examining magistrate. an extra-judicial confession is one made not in the course of legal prosecution for the offense, but out of court, whether made to an official or a non-official person.
5. in roman law, the admission by the defendant of the plaintilf's claim. it was either in jure (that is, before the pretor, and before the case had been referred to a judge to be tried) or in judicio (that is, made after the case had been so referred).
6. in liturgics: in many oriental and early liturgies, a form of prayer acknowledging sinfulness and unworthiness, said by the priest before the celebration of the eucharist: also called the apologia.
7. in the roman and other latin masses, the confiteor, or form of general acknowledgment of sins, said first by the celebrant and then by the assistants, and followed by the Misereatur and Indulgentiam before the priest ascends to the altar and proceeds to the introit.
8. in the anglican communion office, the form of general acknowledgment of sins made by the celebrant and the communicants.
9. in the liturgy of st. Chrysos-tom, and in the alexandrine and other oriental liturgies, the profession of faith, made before communicating, that the consecrated elements are really and truly the body and blood of christ.
10. A formulary which comprises articles of religious faith; a creed to be assented to or signed as a preliminary to admission to the membership of a church, or to certain offices of authority in the church: usually called a confession of faith.
11. [ML. confessio(n-).] the tomb of a martyr or confessor.
12. [capitalized] in the book of common prayer: the form of acknowledgment of sins to be said by the minister and the whole congregation at the beginning of morning prayer and evening Praver.
13. the form of confession in the communion office.

1. a written document acknowledging an offense and signed by the guilty party
2. an admission of misdeeds or faults
3. (roman catholic church) the act of a penitent disclosing his sinfulness before a priest in the sacrament of penance in the hope of absolution
4. a public declaration of your faith
5. the document that spells out the belief system of a given church (especially the reformation churches of the 16th century)