confessor

noun

con·​fes·​sor kən-ˈfe-sər 

 senses 1 & 3 also  ˈkän-ˌfe-sər,

 sense 3 also  ˈkän-fə-ˌsȯr

1

: one who gives heroic evidence of faith but does not suffer martyrdom

2

: one that confesses

3

a

: a priest who hears confessions

b

: a priest who is one's regular spiritual guide

Examples of confessor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Its main purpose is not the creation of aesthetic beauty out of the materials at hand (life, pain) but selfishness: relieving the confessor’s desire to confess. —Lauren Oyler, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2024

The outsize little girl, so clearly nonhuman and yet so sympathetic, is an older-than-her-years figure of commiseration, a confessor to kids and adults in a refugee camp and, wrenchingly, to a man from Gambia who describes his journey to the Continent. —Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019

But it’s also filled with intimacy, as Nas, a primo confessor of the Tik Tok generation, gives interviews while in a towel, or while lying on the ground, with existential one-liners just pouring out of him. —Jada Yuan, Washington Post, 11 Sep. 2023

The same thing could be witnessed, in decades past, on more secular (but hardly less ceremonial) television programs like The Oprah Winfrey Show, where talk show luminaries act as confessors to erring movie stars. —Ian Buruma, Harper's Magazine, 2 June 2023

Word History

Etymology

Middle English confessour, borrowed from Anglo-French confessur, borrowed from Medieval Latin confessor, going back to Late Latin, "one professing a religious faith, one confessing sins," from confitērī "to profess faith" (going back to Latin, "to admit [a fact, the truth of a statement or charge], reveal") + Latin -tor, agent suffix — more at confess

Note: The word confessor occurs in some Old English texts, though usually with Latin or ambiguous inflection.

First Known Use

12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

confessor

noun

con·​fes·​sor kən-ˈfes-ər 

1

: one that confesses

2

: a priest who hears confessions