Meaning

• The open admittance of having done something (especially something bad).

  "Without the real murderer's confession, an innocent person will go to jail."

• A formal document providing such an admission.

  "He forced me to sign a confession!"

• The disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is now termed the sacrament of reconciliation.

  "I went to confession and now I feel much better about what I had done."

• Acknowledgment of belief; profession of one's faith.

• A formula in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission to membership of a church; a confession of faith.