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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for owning (up)
Verb
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So did confessing to a crime, oddly.—
Jennifer Maas,
Variety,
3 Mar. 2026 -
After finally confessing to their bosses about these secret missions, they were allowed to continue.—
Costa Beavin Pappas,
Los Angeles Times,
2 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Hallucinations by large language models are a result of their training, when they are rewarded for grasping for an answer instead of admitting uncertainty.—
Parmy Olson,
Mercury News,
7 Mar. 2026
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The Leeds manager was sanctioned with misconduct by the Football Association (FA), and after admitting the charge, was handed the standard one-game suspension plus an £8,000 fine.—
Ali Rampling,
New York Times,
6 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Owning (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/owning%20%28up%29. Accessed 12 Mar. 2026.
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