as in confessing
to make an acknowledgment of something unpleasant as true or valid
had a strong suspicion about which coworker stole her food from the office fridge, but the likely culprit refused to own up
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for owning (up)
Verb
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There's been lingering romantic tension between Crudup's UBA exec Cory Ellison and Witherspoon's anchor Bradley Jackson since early on in the Apple TV+ series, and despite Cory confessing his love for Bradley in season 2, things haven't quite worked out for them — yet.—
Julia Moore,
PEOPLE,
17 Sep. 2025 -
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that tens of millions of people are confessing secrets to AI chatbots trained on religious texts, with apps like Bible Chat reaching over 30 million downloads and Catholic app Hallow briefly topping Netflix, Instagram, and TikTok in Apple's App Store.—
Benj Edwards,
ArsTechnica,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Psychological safety research by Amy Edmondson has shown that teams perform better when people feel safe admitting mistakes and voicing concerns.—
Benjamin Laker,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
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Gould pointed to a strong fundamental backdrop for Netflix, admitting that his prior downgrade of the stock was a mistake.—
Lisa Kailai Han,
CNBC,
17 Sep. 2025
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“Owning (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/owning%20%28up%29. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.
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