profess
Americanverb (used with object)
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to lay claim to, often insincerely; pretend to.
He professed extreme regret.
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to declare openly; announce or affirm; avow or acknowledge.
to profess one's satisfaction.
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to affirm faith in or allegiance to (a religion, God, etc.).
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to declare oneself skilled or expert in; claim to have knowledge of; make (a thing) one's profession or business.
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to teach as a professor.
She professes comparative literature.
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to receive or admit into a religious order.
verb (used without object)
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to make a profession, avowal, or declaration.
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to take the vows of a religious order.
verb
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to affirm or announce (something, such as faith); acknowledge
to profess ignorance
to profess a belief in God
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(tr) to claim (something, such as a feeling or skill, or to be or do something), often insincerely or falsely
to profess to be a skilled driver
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to receive or be received into a religious order, as by taking vows
Other Word Forms
- preprofess verb (used with object)
- unprofessing adjective
Etymology
Origin of profess
1400–50; late Middle English; back formation from professed
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.
Even as they profess admiration for one another’s work, Ruth, Jay and Leigh sink into a bog of miscommunication and antagonism.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026
Both Melling and Lighton profess gratitude that a star of Skarsgård’s profile wanted to be part of “Pillion.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 4, 2026
The two profess their love for each other.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 6, 2025
Although they profess to be in this screwy loyalty gauntlet for similar reasons, not everyone’s impetus is the same.
From Salon • Mar. 13, 2025
Burr’s response was incisively curt: “having Considered it attentively,” he wrote, “I regret to find in it nothing of that sincerity and delicacy which you profess to Value.”
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
