profess
verb
Simple meaning
To declare; to assert.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pruhfehsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹəˈfɛs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
ambitransitive
To declare; to assert, affirm.
reflexive
To declare oneself (to be something).
transitive
To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.).
transitive
To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity.
Take vows, as in religious order
“She professed herself as a nun.”
Receive into a religious order or congregation
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order.
Used this way, profess is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use profess
- “The terrorists professed allegiance to their country.”verb
- “He professed innocence but later admitted his guilt.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.