confess
[verb]
Synonyms:
- admit, acknowledge, come clean (informal), concede, confide, disclose, divulge, own up
- declare, affirm, assert, confirm, profess, reveal

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Related Idioms: make a clean breast, open one's heart

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English Thesaurus: admit, concede, acknowledge, confess, Granted/I grant you, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

con‧fess /kənˈfes/ verb [intransitive and transitive]
[Date: 1300-1400; Language: Old French; Origin: confesser, from Latin confiteri 'to confess', from com- ( ⇒ COM-) + fateri 'to confess']

1. to admit, especially to the police, that you have done something wrong or illegal ⇒ confession
confess to (doing) something
Edwards confessed to being a spy for the KGB.
Occasionally people confess to crimes they haven’t committed just to get attention.
confess (that)
My husband confessed he’d been having an affair with a woman in his office.
Torture was used and Fian confessed.

2. to admit something that you feel embarrassed about ⇒ confession
confess (that)
Marsha confessed that she didn’t really know how to work the computer.
confess to (doing) something
He confessed to having a secret admiration for his opponent.
I (have to/must) confess (=used when admitting something you feel slightly embarrassed about)
I must confess I don’t visit my parents as often as I should.

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In everyday English, people usually say admit rather than confess:
I know it was him – he admitted it.
I admit I’m not very good with money.

3. to tell a priest or God about the wrong things you have done so that you can be forgiven ⇒ confession:
He knelt and confessed his sin.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

confess
verb
ADV. freely, openly | allegedly | ruefully, sheepishly
VERB + CONFESS have to, must I must confess that I didn't have much faith in her ideas.
PREP. to He was arrested and confessed to the murder. She confessed to me that she had known his true identity for some time.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

admit to agree unwillingly that something is true:
He admitted that the company was having financial difficulties.
I must admit I was disappointed by their reaction.
concede formal to admit something in a discussion or argument:
‘You may be right,’ Bridget conceded.
It was a decision which he now concedes was incorrect.
acknowledge /əkˈnɒlɪdʒ/ formal to say that something is true or that a situation exists:
The report acknowledges that research on animals is not always a reliable guide when it comes to humans.
They do not want to acknowledge the fact that things have changed.
confess to admit something that you feel embarrassed or ashamed about:
Bradley confessed that he struggled to finish the race.
I must confess I don’t like his wife at all.
Granted/I grant you formal spoken used when admitting that something is true, although you do not think it makes much difference to the main point. Granted is usually used at the beginning of a sentence, or on its own:
She has a lot of experience, I grant you, but she’s not good at managing people.
Granted he did play well in the last game, but generally his form hasn't had been very good recently.
own up to admit that you have done something wrong, usually something that is not very serious. Own up is more informal than admit or confess:
He owned up to the mistake straight away.
fess up informal to admit that you have done something wrong that is not very serious:
Come on, fess up! Where were you last night?
come clean informal to finally admit something bad that you have been trying to hide:
They want the government to come clean on where all the money has gone.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲