professed

[ pruh-fest ]

adjective

1. avowed; acknowledged.
2. professing to be qualified; professional, rather than amateur.
3. having taken the vows of, or been received into, a religious order.
4. alleged; pretended.

professed

/ prəˈfɛsɪdlɪ; prəˈfɛst /

adjective

1. avowed or acknowledged
2. alleged or pretended
3. professing to be qualified as

   a professed philosopher

4. having taken vows of a religious order

Derived Forms

• professedly, adverb

Other Words From

• half-pro·fessed adjective
• nonpro·fessed adjective
• self-pro·fessed adjective
• unpro·fessed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of professed¹

1300–50; Middle English (in religious sense) < Medieval Latin profess ( us ) (special use of Latin professus, past participle of profitērī to declare publicly, equivalent to pro- pro- ¹ + -fet-, combining form of fatērī to acknowledge + -tus past participle suffix, with tt > ss ) + -ed ²

Example Sentences

As a candidate, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly professed his love of clean air and water, but he also dismissed climate change as a hoax, railed against zero emission electric vehicles and expressed contempt for the environmental regulations that seek to protect California rivers and estuaries.

From Los Angeles Times

The vice president-elect, JD Vance, has in the past professed indifference to Ukraine’s fate.

From Los Angeles Times

Long before he entered politics, Trump grew up watching wrestling as a child in Queens, New York and he has always professed a deep reverence for its larger-than-life entertainers.

From BBC

She professed her desire to hustle beyond her short-lived stint in G.L.A.M., a pop girl group.

From Los Angeles Times

If this is how a professed advocate for an open-source world is behaving, is there really any future left for the open-source dream of the World Wide Web?

From Slate

Related Words

• stated