What does possessing mean?
Possessing means having something as one's own, whether that is a physical object, a quality, or an ability. The word often suggests a more enduring or personal form of ownership than a simple reference to having something temporarily. For example, a person possesses knowledge if that knowledge belongs to their experience and remains available to them. Possessing can also mean exercising control or authority over a person, place, or institution, as in “possessing the land.” In literary and religious language, a possessed person or creature is one believed to be under the influence of an external power. The word is formal but widely understood, and its present-participle form is especially common in expressions such as “possessing the ability to” and “possess vast wealth.”
To own, hold, or have something as one's own; to exercise control over someone or something.
"The organization possesses the legal right to distribute the material."
In its participial form, this can function adjectivally before a noun, as in “a possessing authority” in older literary usage.
Having a quality or characteristic; dominated by a strong emotion, belief, or external influence.
"He was possessed by a conviction that the mission was worthwhile."
This use is literary or religious in tone; in ordinary modern English, the more common expression is “possessed by.”
To possess something is to hold it; to possess its qualities is to have them become part of your character.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does possessing come from?
The word possess comes through Old French from Latin possidere, a compound formed from potis, meaning “able” or “powerful,” and sedere, meaning “to sit.” The underlying sense was to sit in possession of something, which developed into the modern meanings of owning, holding, or controlling. The related English words potential, potent, and impossible reflect the same Latin family of ideas involving ability, power, and possibility.
Related word forms
How possessing is actually used
As the present participle of possess, this form is commonly used with modal verbs such as can and may, in progressive constructions, and before nouns in adjectival phrases. In literary or religious contexts, it can also describe a person who is believed to be under an outside supernatural influence.
Easily confused with possessing
Possess is the infinitive form, while possessing is its present participle, used after modal verbs, in continuous tenses, and in some adjectival constructions.
Possessing emphasizes ownership or control, whereas residing emphasizes living in a particular place.