admission
Americannoun
-
admissions
plural
-
the act of allowing to enter; entrance granted by permission, by provision or existence of pecuniary means, or by the removal of obstacles.
the admission of foreign aid workers into the zone of active conflict.
-
right or permission to enter.
granting admission to the rare books room.
- Synonyms:
- access
-
the price paid for entrance, as to a theater or ball park.
-
an act or condition of being received or accepted in a position, profession, occupation, or office; appointment.
admission to the bar.
-
confession of a charge, an error, or a crime; acknowledgment.
His admission of the theft solved the mystery.
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an acknowledgment of the truth of something.
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a point or statement admitted; concession.
noun
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permission to enter or the right, authority, etc, to enter
-
the price charged for entrance
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acceptance for a position, office, etc
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a confession, as of a crime, mistake, etc
-
an acknowledgment of the truth or validity of something
Usage
What is an admission? An admission is entrance by permission or the removal of obstacles to entry, as in The admission of girls into the science program has been a long time coming. Admission is also a right or permission to enter, as in Only employees have admission to the backstage area. Admission can also be the price paid in order to enter, as at a sports or theater event. An admission can also be a confession or acknowledgement of the truth, as when you admit that you were the one who broke your mother’s favorite dish. Example: Just the first act of the play was worth the price of admission.
Synonym Usage
See entrance 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of admission
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Anglo-French and Latin admissiōn- (stem of admissiō ), equivalent to admiss-, past participial stem of the verb admittere admit + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
If you pay admission, you're paying a fee in order to attend something, like an event or a movie. After you pay admission to the movie theater, you head straight to the popcorn stand. The noun admission stems from the Latin word admissionem, meaning "a letting in." It often refers to a fee charged for entry, but it can also describe the process of being granted entry. The university's admission of the new student was welcome news — now he has access to the school's research facilities. An admission can also be a confession that something is true, such as your brother's surly admission that he was the one who popped your bike tire.
Vocabulary lists containing admission
Send a Message: Mit and Miss
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"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
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Education and Academics, List 1
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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:
Glastonbury coach ticket prices range from £26 to £185 - on top of general admission - depending on the departure town or city and whether it is a single or return journey.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026
A federal judge ruled for Asian parents and said their students had been deprived of a “level playing field” in competing for admission.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
Long-running securities fraud charges were also resolved without an admission of wrongdoing under an agreement requiring restitution and community service.
From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026
Case said the settlement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing, but rather a means to “avoid the burden, expense, and uncertainty of continued litigation.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2026
Dill and Travis may have been off-brand for her blog, but they were resoundingly on-brand for her bootstrappy admission essay narrative.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
The wildfires have led to school closures and an increase in hospital admissions across Indonesia.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
One subset of magnet schools requires a selective admissions process, and these are at the center of the current dispute.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
“School districts across the country have overhauled admissions criteria for competitive public schools after concluding that existing systems produced undesirable racial enrollment patterns,” they said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
If admissions policies, faculty and curriculum don’t improve, administrators haven’t changed anything.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
“If I’d had this to study from, I wouldn’t have missed one of the questions during admissions today.”
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
