# possession

Pronunciation: say "puh-ZESH-uhn" /pəˈzɛʃn̩/

## Noun

1. Ownership; the act or state of taking, holding, or keeping something as one's own.
   - Simple: The state of having or keeping something that belongs to you.
   - _The painting remained in the museum's possession for over a century._
   - _The deed transferred full possession of the farm to the eldest son._
2. Something that a person owns; an item of personal property.
   - Simple: Something that belongs to you, like a toy, a phone, or a house.
   - _Her grandmother's ring became her most prized possession._
   - _The fire destroyed nearly all of their possessions._
3. Control or occupancy of something that one does not necessarily own outright.
   - Simple: Having or using something even when it does not legally belong to you.
   - _Tenants retain possession of the property even though the landlord owns it._
   - _He was charged with possession of stolen goods._
4. A territory governed by another country rather than by its own independent government.
   - Simple: Land or a country that a different country rules and controls.
   - _Greenland was long administered as a Danish possession._
   - _The treaty forced the empire to give up its island possessions in the Pacific._
5. Control of the ball during play, giving a team the opportunity to attack and score.
   - Simple: Having the ball in a game, so your team can try to score.
   - _The midfielder won back possession with a clean tackle._
   - _Statistics showed the home team had sixty percent possession in the first half._
6. The affliction of having one's body or mind taken over by a demon or some other supernatural being.
   - Simple: A state in which a demon or evil spirit is believed to control a person's body.
   - _Medieval chroniclers attributed the man's convulsions to possession rather than illness._
   - _Exorcism rites in many traditions aim to deliver the afflicted person from possession._
7. The condition of being overcome or controlled by intense emotion or madness.
   - Simple: A state in which strong feelings or madness seem to take over a person.
   - _Jealousy drove him with the force of possession, blinding him to all reason._
   - _Witnesses described the artist working in a state of near possession, painting through the night._
8. In grammar, a construction linking two nouns or noun phrases, as in 'the cover of the book,' that can express ownership among other relations.
   - Simple: In grammar, a way of showing that one thing belongs to another, like 'Anna's book.'
   - _Many languages mark possession with a genitive case rather than a separate word._
   - _In 'the cover of the book,' the preposition 'of' signals possession._
9. In Australian rules football, an act of disposing of the ball, such as a kick or a handball.
   - Simple: In Australian football, each time a player kicks the ball or passes it by hand.
   - _His final possession of the match was a long kick toward goal._
   - _The midfielder racked up thirty-eight possessions in a dominant performance._

## Verb

10. To endow someone with property, making that person its owner. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To give someone property to own.

## Origin

From Latin possessiō, possessiōnis, equivalent to possess plus the suffix -ion.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/possession (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).