confessionary

American  

[kuhn-fesh-uh-ner-ee] / kənˈfɛʃ əˌnɛr i /

adjective

1. of or relating to confession, especially auricular confession of sins.

---

noun

confessionaries plural

1. Archaic. a confessional.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• confessionaries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of confessionary

1600–10; < Medieval Latin confessiōnārius, equivalent to confessiōn- confession + -ārius -ary

Example Sentences

To reach these altars," says Eadmer, "a certain crypt, which the Romans call a confessionary, had to be ascended by means of several steps from the choir of the singers.

From Beautiful Britain: Canterbury by Home, Gordon

This crypt was fabricated beneath in the likeness of the confessionary of St. Peter, the vault of which was raised so high that the part above could only be reached by many steps.”

From The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.] A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Archiepiscopal See by Withers, Hartley

There were a few persons—not the model men of the community—to whom he occasionally unbent and whom he admitted to a sort of comradeship, which, as his diary shows, often became confessionary upon their part.

From Literary Shrines The Haunts of Some Famous American Authors by Wolfe, Theodore F. (Theodore Frelinghuysen)