admit

There are two meanings for the word "admit" that you should know:

To admit is to say that something is true, however reluctantly:

• Martha admitted to eating all of the chocolate cake. (Notice the use of a gerund after admit to.)
• Our teacher wouldn’t admit his mistake.
• The suspect in the murder finally admitted to the crime.
• Darla is afraid to admit her habit of smoking to her parents.
• I have to admit that new Justin Timberlake song is pretty good.

As a noun, the word becomes admission:

• The young boy’s painful admission to theft made his mother cry.
• An admission of guilt was used by the prosecuting attorney against the defendant.

To admit is also to allow a person to enter:

• The college admitted over two thousand students this year.
• Mitchell was admitted into the movie theater after lying about his age.
• His friends were denied admission. (This sentence uses the noun form of the word.)
• What’s the price of admission for the movie? (This sentence also uses a noun.)

The price of admission for a movie keeps going up.

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This page was first published on March 14, 2013. It was updated on January 28, 2017.