confessional

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English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From confession +‎ -al.

Adjective

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confessional (comparative more confessional, superlative most confessional)

  1. In the manner or style of a confession.
    • 1991, Manju Jain, A critical reading of the selected poems of T.S. Eliot, page 77:
      The studied reticence of the poems in quatrains is opposed to the more confessional aspects of the monologue.
  2. Officially practicing a particular shared religion, as a state or organization; see confessionalism 1.
    confessional community
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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From French confessionnal.

Noun

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Wikipedia Wikipedia

confessional (plural confessionals)

  1. (Roman Catholicism) A small room where confession—the Sacrament of Penance—is performed in private with a priest.
    Synonym: confession booth
    • c. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter XI:
      The confessional's chief amusement has been seduction–in all the ages of the Church.
    • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 13, in Crime out of Mind‎[1]:
      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.
  2. A confession.
    • 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[2]:
      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.
  3. (reality television) A filmed interview in which a cast member speaks directly into the camera commenting on the events of the episode.
    • 2004, Ms. Magazine‎[3], volume 14:
      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".
    • 2021, Doreen St. Félix, “"The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" Is Culturally Sensitive Trash”, in The New Yorker‎[4]:
      We see Brooks seethe in a corner, and, in a cut to a confessional, he exaggerates the scene, saying, “I’m feeling really uncomfortable. Her vagina’s in my face.”
Translations
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Catalan

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Etymology

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From confessió +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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confessional m or f (masculine and feminine plural confessionals)

  1. confessional
  2. confessionary
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Further reading

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