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
-
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
-
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:
Garza, a former math professor, looks at the sheer number of students at the school today and is willing to admit even he miscalculated just how much the visibility of the sports teams would do.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
"I admit that in the fight for democracy we have accomplished nothing, but I believe in sowing seeds and giving them a chance to grow," he told AFP in 2024.
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026
“No excuses at all, but I’m finally admitting that I need help. I’ve fought this for a long time on my own, and it’s time to admit that I can’t do it anymore,” she wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
He said the trust "being compelled to admit gross neglect" was the hardest thing.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
Worst of all, he couldn’t admit to seeing things.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
Alaska admits that even she was skeptical of the show’s advance hype.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
The author admits they spent most of his adult life estranged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
While she loves her daughter, Ursula ultimately admits that she hadn’t initially wanted kids.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
“The knock in the night has always been my calling,” this kind listener explains as she admits the exhausted woman with the rambling story to tell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
One simple line, but it admits too much.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
As the Wall Street Journal reported this week in a midterms postmortem, Trump has privately admitted that Miller’s zeal for deportations had “gone too far.”
From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2026
Pérez has heard about recruiters traveling in July for lunches and dinners with admitted students to keep them engaged and ensure contact with the university.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Laura and Arthur were admitted to the mother and baby unit at the Barberry - a national centre for mental health in Birmingham.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
“I’m worried that the parts of directing that I’m not good at are those parts you can’t learn,” he admitted.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026
“Amazing Aggies? That’s a pretty good name,” I admitted.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
Anyone who insists they are too self-aware to be pulled into something that goes against their own interests is admitting that they don’t know themselves or humanity very well.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026
Within hours of him admitting defeat on Sunday night, the camp was dismantled, and a team of volunteers moved in on Monday morning to clean up the mess.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
The author laughs ruefully when accused of his own version of nostalgia, admitting that the version of the airport he’s created feels closer to our present-day reality.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
It is so gruelling that its Asia tournament in Hong Kong was billed as "physical hell", with player Leo Lines admitting that "anyone that's got the puck" is going through "some level of suffering".
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
“Welcome, everybody!” said the girl who’d been admitting people at the door.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
