Ad-mit'tance, n.

n. 1. The act of admitting; allowance or permission to enter. Hooker.

2. Permission to enter; the power or right of entrance; and hence, actual entrance; as, “Ambassadors do crave admittance to your majesty.” Shak.
3. Concession; admission; allowance; as, the admittance of an argument. [Obs.] Browne.
4. The custom or prerogative of being admitted. [Obs.] “Sir John, you are a gentleman of excellent breeding, . . . of great admittance.” Shak.
5. (Law.) The act of giving possession of a copyhold estate. Bouvier.

Syn.—Admission; access; entrance; initiation.—ADMITTANCE, ADMISSION. These words are, to some extent, in a state of transition and change. Admittance is now chiefly confined to its primary sense of access into some locality or building. Thus we see on the doors of factories, &c., “No admittance.” Its secondary or moral sense, as “admittance to the church,” is almost entirely laid aside. Admission has taken to itself the secondary or figurative senses; as, admission to the rights of citizenship; admission to the church; the admissions made by one of the parties in a dispute. And even when used in its primary sense, it is not identical with admittance. Thus, we speak of admission into a country, territory, and other larger localities, &c., where admittance could not be used. So, when we speak of admission to a concert or other public assembly, the meaning is not perhaps exactly that of admittance; viz., access within the walls of the building, but rather a reception into the audience, or access to the performances. But the lines of distinction on this subject are not fully drawn.