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Confess vs Believe - What's the difference?

confess | believe |

As verbs the difference between confess and believe

is that confess is (to admit to the truth) To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed while believe is to accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing.

confess

English

Verb

(es)
  • (senseid) To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
    • People confess to anything under torture.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I never gave it him. Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.
  • * Milton
    • And there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.
  • * Addison
    • I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.
  • To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
  • * Bible, Matthew x. 32
    • Whosoever, therefore, shall confess' me before men, him will I ' confess , also, before my Father which is in heaven.
  • * Bible, Acts xxiii. 8
    • For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.
  • (religion) To unburden (oneself) of sins to a priest, in order to receive absolution.
  • * Addison
    • Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father.
  • (religion) To hear or receive such a confession of sins from.
  • * Ld. Berners
    • He heard mass, and the prince, his son, with him, and the most part of his company were confessed .
  • (senseid) To disclose or reveal.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mould.

    Related terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Derived terms

    * (l), (l)

    See also

    * own up * come clean

    believe

    English

    Alternative forms

    * beleeve (obsolete)

    Verb

    (believ)
  • (label) To accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing)
    • (Here, the speaker merely accepts the accuracy of the conditional.)
  • * 1611 , (King James Version of the Bible), 1:1 :
    • Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.}}
  • (label) To accept that someone is telling the truth.
  • (label) To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.

    • Usage notes

    * The transitive verb believe and the phrasal verb (m) are similar but can have very different implications. ** To “believe” someone or something means to accept specific pieces of information as truth: believe the news'', ''believe the lead witness . To “believe a complete stranger” means to accept a stranger's story with little evidence. ** To “believe in” someone or something means to hold confidence and trust in that person or concept: believe in liberty'', ''believe in God . To “believe in one's fellow man” means to place trust and confidence in mankind. * Meanings sometimes overlap. To believe in'' a religious text would also require affirming the truth of at least the major tenets. To ''believe a religious text might likewise imply placing one's confidence and trust in it, in addition to accepting its statements as facts.

    Derived terms

    * believable * believability * believer * believe in * believe it or not * believe one's eyes * believe you me * disbelieve * unbelievable * unbeliever

    Related terms

    * belief * disbelief

    Statistics

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