possession

From Latin possessiō, possessiōnis.

• IPA^(key): /pəˈzɛʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛʃən

possession (countable and uncountable, plural possessions)

1. Control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
2. Something that is owned.

   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.

   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.

   Back then, people with psychiatric disorders were sometimes thought to be victims of demonic possession.

   • Shakespeare

     How long hath this possession held the man?

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:

     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. (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.

• 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).

• ight (obsolete)
• (taking, holding, keeping something as one's own): owndom, retention
• See also Thesaurus:property

• (taking, holding, keeping something as one's own): absence

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

1. (obsolete) To invest with property.

From Latin possessionem (nominative of possessio)

• IPA^(key): /pɔ.sɛ.sjɔ̃/

• audio

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possession f (plural possessions)

1. possession

• “possession” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).