Meaning of possession in English

possession

noun

/pəˈzeʃ.ən/ us

/pəˈzeʃ.ən/

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C2 [ U ]

the fact that you have or own something:

The possession of large amounts of money does not ensure happiness.

formal I have in my possession a letter which may be of interest to you.

formal He was found in possession of explosives.

B2 [ C usually plural ]

something that you own or that you are carrying with you at a particular time:

Please remember to take all your personal possessions with you when you leave the aircraft.

[ C usually plural ]

a country that is ruled by another country:

a former overseas possession

[ U ]

in games such as football and rugby, the time when a team has control of the ball:

Wolves had a lot of possession but failed to score.

We need to keep possession of the ball to give ourselves a chance.

get/take possession of something law specialized

to start to use and control something such as a building or piece of land that you may or may not own:

We've already bought the house but we won't take possession of it until May.

More examplesFewer examples

Police found a large quantity of drugs in his possession.
Her most cherished possession is a 1926 letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald.
She attaches a lot of importance to personal possessions.
Her photograph is among my most prized possessions.
This pen that my grandfather gave me is one of my most treasured possessions.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Having and owning - general words

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Belongings and possessions

Colonization & self-government

General terms used in ball sports

Grammar

Apostrophe + s to show possession

When we show who owns something or has a close relationship with something, we use an apostrophe + s after the name or the noun. When the noun is plural, we put the apostrophe after the s: …

Possessive ’s

We use apostrophe s (’s), also called possessive ’s, as a determiner to show that something belongs to someone or something: …

Possessives with of

We can talk about possession using the pattern: noun phrase + of + possessive pronoun: …

’s or of or either?

There are some general rules about when to use ’s and when to use of but there are many cases where both are possible: …

Possession: typical errors

We don’t use ’s with plural nouns: …

(Definition of possession from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

possession | American Dictionary

possession

noun [ C/U ]

/pəˈzeʃ·ən/

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something that you own, or the condition of owning something:

[ U ] She couldn’t take possession of the house until the current occupants moved out.

[ C ] Meanwhile, all her possessions were in storage.

in possession of fml

If you are in possession of something you have it with you:

He was in possession of two tickets to the concert.

(Definition of possession from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

possession | Business English

possession

noun

/pəˈzeʃən/ us

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[ U ]

the situation in which someone has or owns something:

in sb's possession No steps may be taken to repossess goods in the company's possession except with the leave of the court.

have possession of sth The Court of Appeal admitted that Ms Mountford did have exclusive possession of the property.

in possession of sth The ruling did not establish that he was in possession of the disputed land.

See also

freehold possession
immediate possession
leasehold possession
private possession
quiet possession
vacant possession

[ C, usually plural ]

something that someone owns or has with them at a particular time:

The value of his possessions came to about $1 million.

material/personal possessions

get/take possession of sth

to start to use and control goods, a building, or a piece of land, whether you own them or not:

Was the bank entitled to take possession of his property and exercise its power of sale without an order of the court?

The court appointed a receiver to take possession of the assets of the company.

[ U ] LAW

the crime of having illegal drugs or illegally owning a gun:

He is wanted by police on charges of possession of illegal firearms.

(Definition of possession from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of possession

possession

Verily, my children and my possessions are my enemies.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Examples of inalienable and alienable possessions are given in (8) and (9), respectively.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Second, inalienable possessions are necessary conditions for empathy - one's ability to know, and even experience, the intentional states of others.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Their task is to speculate on the identity of the owner of the coat on the basis of these possessions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

First, the similarity of the possessions claimed suggests that both groups participate in similar economic activities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The symbolic value of personal gifts and possessions as a symbol of the deceased is addressed in a particularly insightful chapter.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Much less would it have been able to protect any commercial establishments or possessions overseas.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

True friends were moreover believed to 'merge into one another' and to regard the other as one's second self, sharing their life and their possessions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Inalienable possessions are very closely associated with the identity of the group and individual owner: they provide the keeper with a 'cosmological authentication'.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Judging by the wills of spinsters and widows, women had intense feelings about their possessions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The king, enraged, threatened to destroy the possessions of the objecting monks.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

She was content with her room even though it had few of her possessions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

She had placed her possessions in storage and said that ' it didn't matter ' if they were returned to her.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Moreover, possessions are more accurately measured than income in traditional societies.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There was no cause for alarm; the workmen were treating my possessions quite well.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of possession

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with possession

possession

These are words often used in combination with possession.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

adverse possession

Instead, they permit legal doctrines like adverse possession to function as a kind of statute of limitations on the rectification of property claims.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

demonic possession

They may also lead to the same social exclusionary practices that attributions to demonic possession produced in an earlier era.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

exclusive possession

I assume that on the grounds that the grazer does not have what is known in agricultural terms as exclusive possession.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

See all collocations with possession

What is the pronunciation of possession?

Translations of possession

in Chinese (Traditional)

擁有，佔有, 具有, 所有物，個人物品…

in Chinese (Simplified)

拥有，占有, 具有, 所有物，个人物品…

in Spanish

posesión, colonia, posesión [feminine…

in Portuguese

posse, bem, possessão…

in more languages

in Marathi

in Japanese

in Turkish

in French

in Catalan

in Dutch

in Tamil

in Hindi

in Gujarati

in Danish

in Swedish

in Malay

in German

in Norwegian

in Urdu

in Ukrainian

in Russian

in Telugu

in Arabic

in Bengali

in Czech

in Indonesian

in Thai

in Vietnamese

in Polish

in Korean

in Italian

साठा असणे, मालकीची वस्तु, पझेशन…

所有物, 財産, 所有物（しょゆうぶつ）…

sahip olunanlar, mal mülk, sahip olma…

possession [feminine], bien [masculine], possession…

possessió…

bezit, eigendom…

உங்களிடம் ஏதாவது இருக்கிறது அல்லது சொந்தமாக உள்ளது, உங்களுக்குச் சொந்தமானது அல்லது ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட நேரத்தில் நீங்கள் எடுத்துச் செல்வது, மற்றொரு நாட்டை ஆட்சி செய்யும் நாடு…

स्वामित्व, (किसी विशेष समय पर अपने पास रखी हुई) संपत्ति, सामान…

કોઈ વસ્તુ તમારી પાસે હોવી કે ધરાવવી., કોઈ વસ્તુ જેની તમે માલિકી ધરાવો છો અથવા ચોક્કસ સમયે તમે તે સાથે લઈ જઈ રહ્યા છો., એક દેશ જે બીજા દેશના તાબા…

ejendel, koloni, eje…

tillhörighet, ägodel, besittande…

kepunyaan, pemilikan…

der Besitz…

eiendel [masculine], eiendom [masculine], besittelse [masculine]…

ملکیت, تحویل, ماں و متاع…

власність, майно, володіння…

имущество, собственность, обладание…

మీరు ఏదైనా కలిగి ఉన్నారనే లేదా స్వంతం చేసుకున్నారనే వాస్తవం, మీకు ఉన్నదేదైనా లేదా మీరు ఒక నిర్దిష్ట సమయంలో మీతో తీసుకువెళుతున్నదేదైనా, మరొక దేశం చేతిలో పాలించబడే దేశం…

مُمْتَلَكات…

মালিকানা, দখল বা অধিকার, ব্যক্তিগত জিনিসপত্র…

majetek, vlastnictví…

milik, pemilikan…

สิ่งที่ครอบครองอยู่, ความเป็นเจ้าของ…

tài sản, sự sở hữu…