1. 1. The act of admitting or allowing to enter.
   2. The state of being allowed to enter.
2. Right to enter; access.
3. The price required or paid for entering; an entrance fee.
4. A confession, as of having committed a crime.
5. A voluntary acknowledgment of truth.
6. A fact or statement granted or admitted; a concession.

[Middle English, from Latin admissiō, admissiōn-, from admissus, past participle of admittere, to admit. See admit.]

USAGE NOTE   It is often maintained that admittance should be used only to refer to achieving physical access to a place (He was denied admittance to the courtroom), and that admission should be used for the wider sense of achieving entry to a group or institution (her admission to the club; China's admission to the United Nations). There is no harm in observing this distinction, though it is often ignored. But admission is much more common in the sense "a fee paid for the right of entry": The admission to the movie was five dollars.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.