profess
Americanverb (used with object)
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professes,
present (3rd person singular)
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professed,
past participle, past
-
professing
present participle
-
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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professes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
professed,
past participle, past
-
professing
present participle
-
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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professsimple
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professessimple
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have professedperfect
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has professedperfect
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am professingprogressive
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are professingprogressive
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is professingprogressive
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have been professingperfect progressive
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has been professingperfect progressive
Past
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professedsimple
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had professedperfect
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was professingprogressive
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were professingprogressive
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had been professingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of profess
1400–50; late Middle English; back formation from professed
Explanation
To profess is to declare something, often insincerely. Your joy on the last day of school might lead you to profess that you'll truly miss seeing all the people who annoyed you all year. You can profess something and mean it, but more often the verb profess is used when someone lies about their true feelings. You might profess your love of your grandmother's tuna casserole, or profess that you never bite your fingernails, but you're just saying what you think people want to hear. The original meaning of profess described taking religious vows, and came from the Latin word professus, meaning "having declared publicly."
Vocabulary lists containing profess
Words That Could Go Either Way: Synonyms for "Maybe"
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"Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell
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The Taming of the Shrew
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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:
He continues to profess his confidence that Newey and Honda will eventually produce the best car and engine.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
“We profess to be the best in the world in this sport,” U.S. general manager Michael Hill said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
I profess no ultimate wisdom but that’s what I’m getting from the comments that they make.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
First, she had to stop fighting the Others, the term for the billions united in groupthink, and accept if not entirely trust that the collective love they profess to have for her is real.
From Salon ● Dec. 29, 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
Florian Zeller’s “Bunker” at least implicates its characters in the politics it professes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
Regional mayors were an untested concept at the time but Burnham made the role his own - and used it to build a powerful platform, untainted by the London-centric Westminster politics he professes to despise.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Yet it simultaneously professes anxiety about an Asian American who has decidedly not stood apart from American institutions and culture: After graduating from Yale Law School, Wang clerked for two Supreme Court justices.
From Slate ● May 26, 2026
In Mr. Mian’s travelogue, we meet person after person who professes adherence to Russian Orthodox Christianity, but no one speaks of salvation, sacraments or even Jesus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026
“I see no enemy to a fortunate issue but in the brow; and that brow professes to say,—‘I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
With this time-shaping device called the Chronovisor, Father Pellegrino Ernetti professed to have seen footage of the crucified Christ and even enjoyed a lost play staged by an ancient Roman dramatist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
The next thing I think you start seeing is the court becoming interested in, despite its professed adherence to textualism, reading these statutes with an eyebrow raised.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
“In the past, I supported him because of the policies he professed to support and passionately campaigned on,” Greene wrote.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
Though he professed to not know the mainland scene "very well", he pinpointed animation and small-scale productions as bright spots.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
Although the California Department of Public Health professed to see no hazard, nevertheless in 1959 it required that the use of DDD in the lake be stopped.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Then there were the officials whose job is literally to know things, professing not to know anything.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2026
Back in 2016, Taco Bell introduced its limited-time “quesalupa” to the Canadian market by calling on everyday fans to read scripts professing their love for the product in appropriately cheesy, ’80s-style dating videos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
You can see the evidence yourself: On social media, people are making teary videos professing to have rediscovered Jesus; in the comments, former atheists share stories of finding peace and purpose in prayer.
From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2025
Mr Candunde and Mr Phiri have been charged under Zambia's Witchcraft Act with "possession of charms", "professing knowledge of witchcraft" and "cruelty to wild animals".
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2024
The gratitude that he gave me an edge by professing his love for me in the interview.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
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.
