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confessional

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Etymology tree
English confession
Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-
Proto-Indo-European *-is
Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.?
Proto-Italic *-ālis
Latin -ālislbor.
Old French -albor.
▲
Latin -ālis
Old French -elbor.
▲
Latin -ālisbor.
Middle English -al
English -al
English confessional

    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 (sense 1).
      confessional community
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    Translations

    Etymology 2

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    From French confessionnal.

    Noun

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    Wikipedia Wikipedia
    sense 1

    confessional (plural confessionals)

    1. (Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism) A small room where confession 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], archived from the original on 2 September 2025:
        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], archived from the original on 27 April 2026:
        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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