admit
Americanverb (used with object)
-
admits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
admitted,
past participle, past
-
admitting
present participle
-
to allow to enter; grant or afford entrance to.
to admit a student to college.
- Synonyms:
- receive
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to give right or means of entrance to.
This ticket admits two people.
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to register (a person) as an inpatient at a hospital.
After seeing the test results, the emergency room doctor admitted her and put her on intravenous fluids.
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to permit to exercise a certain function or privilege.
admitted to the bar.
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to permit; allow.
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to allow or concede as valid.
to admit the force of an argument.
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to acknowledge; confess.
He admitted his guilt.
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to grant in argument; concede.
The fact is admitted.
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to have capacity for.
This passage admits two abreast.
verb (used without object)
-
admits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
admitted,
past participle, past
-
admitting
present participle
-
to permit entrance; give access.
This door admits to the garden.
-
to permit the possibility of something; allow (usually followed byof ).
The contract admits of no other interpretation.
verb
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(may take a clause as object) to confess or acknowledge (a crime, mistake, etc)
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(may take a clause as object) to concede (the truth or validity of something)
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to allow to enter; let in
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(foll by to) to allow participation (in) or the right to be part (of)
to admit to the profession
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to allow (of); leave room (for)
-
(intr) to give access
the door admits onto the lawn
Synonym Usage
See acknowledge.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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admitternoun
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readmitverb
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preadmitverb (used with object)
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admittableadjective
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admittibleadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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admitsimple
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admitssimple
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have admittedperfect
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has admittedperfect
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am admittingprogressive
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are admittingprogressive
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is admittingprogressive
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have been admittingperfect progressive
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has been admittingperfect progressive
Past
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admittedsimple
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had admittedperfect
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was admittingprogressive
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were admittingprogressive
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had been admittingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of admit
First recorded in 1375–1425; from Latin admittere, from ad- ad- + mittere “to send, let go”; replacing late Middle English amitte, with a- a- 5 instead of ad-, from Middle French amettre, from Latin, as above
Explanation
When you admit something, you confess that it happened. It wasn't easy to admit that you'd broken the vase, but how else could you explain that your hand was glued to it? Besides meaning "confess," admit can also mean "let in," like a theater ticket that says "ADMIT ONE." If you admit that you have a bag of popcorn hidden in your backpack, you might not be admitted to the movie. A doorway admits you into a room, and if a room can hold up to 50 people, that room admits 50. You can even use admit for metaphorical entrances, like the way your wild style admits you into high fashion circles.
Vocabulary lists containing admit
Send a Message: Mit and Miss
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Because of Winn-Dixie
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Beowulf: A New Telling
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It’s about soaring national debts, coupled with a refusal to admit that there is any limit to the amount that can be borrowed.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
We can admit our errors and seek to right them through another sacrament — confession.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Well, consider what it must be like to give up the England captaincy, to admit you can no longer do a dream job.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Jeff Bezos went to the event hoping to persuade board members to admit him to the club, according to people who attended the event.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Danny didn’t admit it out loud, but their little team felt complete with Llewelyn.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
All this solo activity doesn't mean the end of The Killers, although he admits, "I don't know what the future holds" for the band.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
He admits he wrote to an associate choreographer asking if there was a solution — possibly making them from plastic foam — and was politely reminded that they would be lighted on fire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
“It was a bit of a cash crunch for us,” Adam admits, “but I think we were also lucky in a lot of ways.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
He admits now many in China have "material abundance" and "skylines bristling with high-rises and streets teeming with traffic."
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
“Ahhh! I shouldn’t have done that!” he admits, holding one fist in the other.
From "Out of My Mind" by Sharon M. Draper
But Harry has admitted the revelations made in his 2023 controversial biography "Spare" and a devastating TV interview with Oprah Winfrey had rocked relations.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
In a recent Visier survey of 1,000 U.S. workers, 48% admitted to exaggerating their AI usage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Albert admitted in 2020 that he had fathered a daughter during an affair and eventually recognised her as his own.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
She said she "loved" her role as an advocate, but admitted it left her feeling "completely overwhelmed".
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
She stood in the fading daylight a little longer and then admitted, “I’m going to Rûm.”
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
In late 2019, the cracks were visible, with Harry admitting in a television interview that he and his brother were on "different paths".
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
Median didn’t respond until Monday, first saying it was shutting down its polling operation, then admitting to The Times that the poll was faked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
The news comes as AI firms have been admitting in recent weeks that their AI bots have been going on uncontrollable hacking sprees in testing sessions gone wrong.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
But it would take nearly 45 years and a prosecutor admitting he failed to turn over key fingerprint evidence before the courts threw out Brooks’ conviction.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
I always felt I could relate to Ms. Valente, so I had no problem admitting that I hadn’t seen Monday since June and I was real worried about her.
From "Monday's Not Coming" by Tiffany D. Jackson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
