confessional

[ kuhn-fesh-uh-nl ]

adjective

1. of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or based on confession:

   confessional release.

noun

1. the place set apart for the hearing of confessions by a priest.
2. French Furniture. a high, upholstered wing chair of the 18th century.

confessional

/ kənˈfɛʃənəl /

adjective

1. of, like, or suited to a confession

noun

1. Christianity RC Church a small stall, usually enclosed and divided by a screen or curtain, where a priest hears confessions
2. a book of penitential prayers

Other Words From

• pseudo·con·fession·al adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of confessional¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Medieval Latin confessiōnāle, neuter of confessiōnālis (adjective); confession, -al ¹; confessional defs 2, 3 from French, from Medieval Latin

Example Sentences

Dylan was never destined to be a stadium rocker or a confessional, emo singer-songwriter.

From Washington Post

TikTok briefly changed that image by elevating unfiltered, “real” content from regular users, like Wood’s confessional van videos and Paluso’s birding Q&As.

From Outside Online

BTS’s climb to success, then, involved the band finding a way to communicate that this confessional image was real.

From Vox

BTS has pulled off this confessional, one-on-one intimacy all while building an international fanbase, despite considerable language and cultural barriers.

From Vox

She also wanted to be right with God and wanted my film — titled A Matter of Life and Death — to be a confessional.

From Ozy

It gets a lot of page views, but it contributes to the idea that all personal writing has to be confessional.

From The Daily Beast

I obtained court records, and a long, confessional interview he did with Dan Rather that CNN never aired.

From The Daily Beast

Of course, this was his plan the whole time, as this making-of/confessional video demonstrates.

From The Daily Beast

But honest scholars must “follow the evidence where it leads,” and sometimes this path departs from the confessional highway.

From The Daily Beast

One, a close-framed confessional, watches as a Free Syrian Army fighter describes killing a man he knew to be innocent.

From The Daily Beast

He gained the shade of a pillar, which stood at the corner of a confessional, and stood there wondering what he should do.

From Project Gutenberg

"It seems now all is really over," thought Chicot, and he came out of the confessional.

From Project Gutenberg

The difference in confessional adherence was of no account, he said, and an immediate answer was desired.

From Project Gutenberg

He walked up to it, and recognized it as a robot-confessional booth.

From Project Gutenberg

I never sit in "the box," as the people call the confessional.

From Project Gutenberg