Understand
[ʌndə'stænd] or ['ʌndɚ'stænd]
Definition
(verb.) know and comprehend the nature or meaning of; 'She did not understand her husband'; 'I understand what she means'.
(verb.) perceive (an idea or situation) mentally; 'Now I see!'; 'I just can't see your point'; 'Does she realize how important this decision is?'; 'I don't understand the idea'.
(verb.) believe to be the case; 'I understand you have no previous experience?'.
(verb.) make sense of a language; 'She understands French'; 'Can you read Greek?'.
Inputed by Carmela--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To have just and adequate ideas of; to apprehended the meaning or intention of; to have knowledge of; to comprehend; to know; as, to understand a problem in Euclid; to understand a proposition or a declaration; the court understands the advocate or his argument; to understand the sacred oracles; to understand a nod or a wink.
(v. t.) To be apprised, or have information, of; to learn; to be informed of; to hear; as, I understand that Congress has passed the bill.
(v. t.) To recognize or hold as being or signifying; to suppose to mean; to interpret; to explain.
(v. t.) To mean without expressing; to imply tacitly; to take for granted; to assume.
(v. t.) To stand under; to support.
(v. i.) To have the use of the intellectual faculties; to be an intelligent being.
(v. i.) To be informed; to have or receive knowledge.
Checked by Claudia
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Apprehend, conceive, perceive, know, COMPREHEND, penetrate, discern, see, have knowledge of, see through, make out.[2]. Interpret, take, suppose to mean.[3]. Mean, imply.
v. n. [1]. [Rare.] Be an intelligent being, have understanding.[2]. Learn, hear, be apprised, be informed.
Edited by Emily
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Apprehend, comprehend, know, perceive, discern, conceive, learn, recognize,Interpret, imply
ANT:Misapprehend, miscomprehend, ignore, misinterpret, declare, state, enunciate,express
Checked by Aron
Definition
v.t. to comprehend: to have just ideas of: to know thoroughly: to be informed of: to learn: to suppose to mean: to mean without expressing: to imply.—v.i. to have the use of the intellectual faculties: to be informed: to learn.—adj. Understan′dable.—p.adj. Understan′ded (obs.) understood (with of).—n. Understan′ding the act of comprehending: the faculty or the act of the mind by which it understands or thinks: the power to understand: knowledge: exact comprehension: agreement of minds: harmony.—adj. knowing skilful.—adv. Understan′dingly.—Understands′ in Scotch Version of Psalms used for Understandest.
Typist: Nelly
Examples
- I am to understand, then, that you hold by the determination expressed in your letter? Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- You don't understand. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Reply: I fancy, though we never met, that you and I are in fact acquainted, and understand each other perfectly. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Mrs. Bulstrode did not wish to go nearer to the facts than in the phrase make some amends; knowing that her husband must understand her. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Understand this, Mr Maurice—you are the scoundrel! Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- He has been something of a voice crying in the wilderness, but a voice that did not understand its own message. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- He was quite willing to tell me what his plan was, but I did not feel clear enough to understand it. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Her feelings were very acute, and too little understood to be properly attended to. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- Putting out my hand I felt several coats hanging from the wall, and I understood that I was in a passage. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- At the old lodgings it was understood that he was summoned to Dover, and, in fact, he was taken down the Dover road and cornered out of it. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- A certain great traveller, who understood the Indians and their language, had figured in Mr. Seegrave's report, hadn't he? Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- It seemed it was a very funny joke if you understood it properly. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- But one thing was the stars, when I really understood something about the stars. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- It's understood, then? Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- The understanding of the place of theory in life is a comparatively new one. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- You know, I'm a stranger here, so perhaps I'm not so quick at understanding what you mean as if I'd lived all my life at Milton. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- It, too, demands understanding and direction. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- It's because he has some understanding of a woman, because he is not stupid. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- Why any burglar should take such a thing passes my understanding, for it was only a plaster cast and of no real value whatever. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- But all power of a high order depends on an understanding of the essential character, or law, of heat, light, sound, gravity, and the like. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Nobody understands thee. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- She will be glad: nobody here understands her: Madame Fairfax is all English. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Of course he understands his own affairs. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Standing as a spokesman of an actual social revolt, he has not lost his vision because he understands its function. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- He neither speaks nor understands any European tongue--and his ornaments and weapons are those of the West Coast savages. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- I must familiarise my style--but she understands it. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- No, sir, we have strong reason to believe that he already understands that he has acted in an indiscreet and hot-headed manner. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
Inputed by Allen