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Glite Dictionary
🗣️ Self-revealing 📖 A guidebook ⛪ A confession booth
confessionary

confessionary

9.9
A book with example admissions and questions priests use when people tell their sins
  • noun
  • /kənˈfɛʃənˌɛri/
translation icon : manual de confesiones
  • The priest referred to the confessionary before advising the penitent on their next steps.

Examples

  • She studied the confessionary to better understand the rituals of penance in medieval times.

  • The confessionary contained various model confessions.

  • Historical churches often preserved a confessionary among their sacred texts.

  • He found an old confessionary in the library.

  • The priest referred to the confessionary before advising the penitent on their next steps.

  • Historical churches often preserved a confessionary among their sacred texts.

  • She studied the confessionary to better understand the rituals of penance in medieval times.

Synonyms

penitential
vsconfessionary
  • Archaic
9.9

A book listing what people must do to show they are sorry for sins

offers model confessions and guidance for confessors and penitents

Surface Forms

confessionary singular
confessionaries plural

Morphology

confessionary = confession (semi-transparent) = confession + ary

Derived from 'confession' + '-ary' to name a specialized object (a manual of confessions); the relation is clear but the specific specialized religious function is not fully predictable for all learners.

Etymology

Confessionary as a book takes its name from confess plus the ending -ary, which means 'related to', so it is literally a book 'about' confessions. That's why a confessionary is a guide with model confessions, questions, or rules for priests and penitents.