Wiktionary

possession

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From Latin possessiō, possessiōnis.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /pəˈzɛʃən/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛʃən

Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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possession (countable and uncountable, plural possessions)

  1. Control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
    Hyponym: mortmain
    • 2020 April 8, Paul Stephen, “ECML dive-under drives divergence”, in Rail, page 44:
      Once complete, guide rails will be installed inside the tunnels ready for the box jack itself - which NR intends to push into place during a nine-day engineering possession in September, following a trial push in late August. [...] A small number of weekday and weekend possessions will also be required on June 20-21, September 5-6, and between December 19-March 2021, [...]
  2. Something that is owned.
    Synonyms: (obsolete) ight; see also Thesaurus:property
    The car quickly became his most prized possession.
    I would gladly give all of my worldly possessions just to be able to do that.
  3. Ownership; taking, holding, keeping something as one's own.
    Synonyms: owndom, retention; see also Thesaurus:ownership
    Antonym: absence
    The car is in my possession.
    I'm in possession of the car.
  4. A territory under the rule of another country.
    Réunion is the largest of France's overseas possessions.
  5. The condition or affliction of being possessed by a demon or other supernatural entity.
    Synonym: (obsolete) enthusiasm
    Back then, people with psychiatric disorders were sometimes thought to be victims of demonic possession.
  6. The condition of being under the control of strong emotion or madness.
  7. (sports) Control of the ball; the opportunity to be on the offensive.
    The scoreboard shows a little football symbol next to the name of the team that has possession.
    • 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC‎[1]:
      Their first half was marred by the entire side playing too deep, completely unable to build up any form of decent possession once the ball left their bewildered defence.
  8. (Australian rules football) A disposal of the ball during a game, i.e. a kick or a handball.
    • 2019 In the mix: Who's pushing for selection for round eight? Australian Football League, 7 May 2019. Accessed 7 May 2019.
      Defender Colin O'Riordan had 41 possessions in the NEAFL last week to continue his outstanding form, while Ryan Clarke had 47 in the Swans' big loss to Brisbane.
  9. (linguistics) A syntactic relationship between two nouns or nominals that may be used to indicate ownership.
    Some languages distinguish between a construction like 'my car', which shows alienable possession — the car could become someone else's — and one like 'my foot', which has inalienable possession — my foot will always be mine.

Usage notes

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  • One who possesses is often said to have possession (of), hold possession (of), or be in possession (of).
  • One who acquires is often said to take possession (of), gain possession (of), or come into possession (of).

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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possession (third-person singular simple present possessions, present participle possessioning, simple past and past participle possessioned)

  1. (obsolete) To invest with property.[1]

References

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  1. ^ “possession”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

French

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Etymology

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From Latin possessionem (nominative of possessio).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /pɔ.sɛ.sjɔ̃/ ~ /pɔ.se.sjɔ̃/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

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possession f (plural possessions)

  1. possession

Derived terms

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Further reading

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