Confessional Meaning
/kənˈfɛʃənəl/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjIn the manner or style of a confession.
adjOfficially practicing a particular shared religion, as a state or organization; see confessionalism (sense 1).
Sentence Examples
The confessional allows to negotiate on errors.
Tom's contributions are getting uncomfortably confessional.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the church, the wooden ____ provided privacy for penitents.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The priest sat inside the quiet ____ waiting for the next person.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree English confession Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English confessional From confession + -al.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The studied reticence of the poems in quatrains is opposed to the more confessional aspects of the monologue."
— 1991, Manju Jain, A critical reading of the selected poems of T.S. Eliot, page 77:
"The confessional's chief amusement has been seduction–in all the ages of the Church."
— c. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter XI:
"In one of the aisles there was an elaborately carved confessional box and I recognised the village priest in his heavy mountain boots and black cassock as he entered it and drew the dark velvet curtains behind him."
— 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 13, in Crime out of Mind:
"When a 35-year-old Bill Clinton, famously the nation’s youngest former governor, set out in 1982 to reclaim the job he had lost two years earlier, he began with a remarkable televised confessional.
“My daddy never had to whip me twice for the same thing,” Mr. Clinton told Arkansans in a campaign commercial, acknowledging voters’ anger over his having raised a hated vehicle fee and vowing to listen better if they gave him another chance as governor."
— 2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, It’s Not Hard to Be Humble in an Effort to Regain Power”, in The New York Times:
"These characters behave as crassly as they do in large part because producers of shows such as The Bachelor deprive them of all contact with the outside world ([…]) and ply them with alcohol, then goad them to unleash their petty grievances in filmed "confessionals"."
— 2004, Ms. Magazine, volume 14:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the church, the wooden ____ provided privacy for penitents.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The priest sat inside the quiet ____ waiting for the next person.