confessional
Priest's listening chamber
A confessional is a small enclosed booth in a Catholic church where a priest hears confessions—typically a wooden structure with a partition separating priest from penitent.
As an adjective, confessional describes writing or speech that reveals intimate personal details: confessional poetry, a confessional memoir.
The tone suggests unburdening private thoughts or admitting uncomfortable truths.
One showing remorse
- absolutionFormal clearing of guilt
- priestOne who performs sacraments
- screenDisplay or barrier
- curtainFabric hung for privacy
kneeler · sacrament · penance · sin · repentance · whisper · anonymity · partition
Sacred ritual conveying grace
- penanceSelf-mortification for wrongdoing
- absolutionFormal clearing of guilt
- priestOne who performs sacraments
- liturgyFormal worship structure
ritual · sin · reconciliation · contrition · seal · rite · examination · conscience
Written personal recollection
- autobiographySelf-penned life narrative
- poetryMetrical literary composition
- self-disclosureSharing private information
- vulnerabilityOpenness to harm
raw · personal · diaristic · unfiltered · intimate · revelatory · therapeutic · Sylvia Plath
Relieving oneself of weight
- releaseTo let go
- emotionalShowing strong feelings
- purgingForcible elimination of unwanted
- healingRestoration of health
cleansing · liberation · revelation · therapeutic · ventilation · relief · outpouring · disclosure
penitent
One showing remorse
- absolutionFormal clearing of guilt
- priestOne who performs sacraments
- screenDisplay or barrier
curtain · kneeler · sacrament · penance · sin · repentance · whisper · anonymity · partition · sliding
sacrament
Sacred ritual conveying grace
- penanceSelf-mortification for wrongdoing
- absolutionFormal clearing of guilt
- priestOne who performs sacraments
liturgy · ritual · sin · reconciliation · contrition · seal · rite · examination · conscience · penitential
memoir
Written personal recollection
- autobiographySelf-penned life narrative
- poetryMetrical literary composition
- self-disclosureSharing private information
vulnerability · raw · personal · diaristic · unfiltered · intimate · revelatory · therapeutic · Sylvia Plath · first-person
unburdening
Relieving oneself of weight
healing · cleansing · liberation · revelation · therapeutic · ventilation · relief · outpouring · disclosure · admission
secrecy
Practice of hiding information
- confidentialityQuality of protecting secrets
- intimacyEmotional closeness between people
- discretionCareful judgment in speech
sealed · private · trust · anonymous · hidden · personal · whispered · enclosed · protected · sacred
- Catholic ChurchVatican, papacy, cardinals, popes, papal
- CatholicismVatican, cardinals, pope, Holy Communion, popes
- churchnave, pew, pews, altar, altars
- Chapelschapel bells, chapel choir, college chapel, hospital chapel, memorial chapel
- memoirsmemoir, memoirs, autobiography, autobiographies, life story
- reality TVSurvivor, contestant, The Bachelor, elimination, The Bachelorette
confessionalimpersonal
Lacking warmth or individuality
detached · objective · journalistic · documentary · reportorial
- confession of faithDoctrinal belief statement
- deathbed confessionDisclosure made while dying
- confession boothEnclosed space for admitting sins
- false confessionUntrue guilt statement
- true confessions
- forced confessionStatement extracted under pressure