What is a possession?

Answer 1

A possessive noun is a noun indicating ownership, possession, origin or purpose. For example "the story of the witness" can be turned into "the witness's story".

The possessive is shown by adding an apostrophe s ('s) to the end of a noun or just an apostorphe (') after plural nouns already ending in -s.

Examples:

• the car of my mother = my mother's car
• the teacher of our class = our class's teacher
• the coats of the children = the children's coats
• the covers of the books = the books' covers
• the meeting of the bosses = the bosses' meeting
• The ladies' room does not belong to ladies, it means that it is designated for the use of ladies.
• A store that sells men's suits doesn't sell suits that belong to some men, it sells suits for men.
• A book of Shakespeare's plays are not plays that belong to Mr. Shakespeare, they are plays written by him.

There are two types of possessive pronouns:

Possessive pronouns are words that take the place of a noun that belongs to someone or something.

The seven possessive pronouns are: mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, theirs.

Possessive adjectives are words that describe a noun as belonging to someone or something. Possessive adjectives are placed just before the noun they describe.

The seven possessive adjectives are: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

Examples:

The Browns live on this street. That house is theirs. (possessive pronoun)

The Browns live on this street. That is their house. (possessive adjective)

Answer 2

- noun

1.

the act or fact of possessing.

2.

the state of being possessed.

3.

ownership.

4.

Law. actual holding or occupancy, either with or without rights of ownership.

5.

a thing possessed: He packed all his possessions into one trunk.

6.

possessions, property or wealth.

7.

a territorial dominion of a state.

8.

Sports.

1. physical control of the ball or puck by a player or team: He didn't have full possession when he was tackled.

2. the right of a team to put the ball into play: They had possession after the other team sank a free throw.

9.

control over oneself, one's mind, etc.

10.

domination, actuation, or obsession by a feeling, idea, etc.

11.

the feeling or idea itself.

Example sentences

Origin: 1300-50; ME < L possessiōn- (s. of possessiō) occupancy, act of occupying, equiv. to possess(us), ptp. of possidēre to have in one's control, occupy (and, in active sense, ptp. of posīdere to seize upon) (*pots-, akin to posse to be able + -sidēre, comb. form of sedēre to sit1; cf. host1) + -iōn- -ion