understanding
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ʌndəˈstandɪŋ/Category:English 4-syllable words#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#UNDERSTANDING
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌʌndɚˈstændɪŋ/Category:English 4-syllable words#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#UNDERSTANDING
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#UNDERSTANDINGAudio (US): (file) - Hyphenation: un‧der‧stand‧ing
- Rhymes: -ændɪŋCategory:Rhymes:English/ændɪŋ#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Rhymes:English/ændɪŋ/4 syllables#UNDERSTANDING
Etymology 1
From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#UNDERSTANDING understandinge, understondinge, from Old EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Old English#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms derived from Old English#UNDERSTANDING understanding (“intelligence, understanding”), from Proto-West GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#UNDERSTANDING *undarstandingu, from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#UNDERSTANDING *understandingō, equivalent to understand + -ing (gerund ending)Category:English terms suffixed with -ing (gerund noun)#UNDERSTANDING. Cognate with Middle Dutch onderstaninge, Middle Low German understandinge, Middle High German understandunge.
Noun
understanding (countable and uncountable, plural understandings)Category:English lemmas#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English nouns#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English uncountable nouns#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English countable nouns#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English countable nouns#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Pages with entries#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Pages with 2 entries#UNDERSTANDING (with of, but with for in sense of "sympathy")
- (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#UNDERSTANDING) The act of one that understands or comprehends; the mental process of discernment of meaning.
- Synonym: comprehension
- There are certain things that defy human understanding.Category:English terms with usage examples#UNDERSTANDING
- 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:
- The Ways of Heav’n are dark and intricate,Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERSTANDING
Puzzled in Mazes, and perplext with Errors;
Our Underſtanding traces ’em in vain,
Loſt and bewilder’d in the fruitleſs Search; […]
- (countableCategory:English countable nouns#UNDERSTANDING) Reason or intelligence; ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge; ability to infer.
- Synonyms: comprehension, grasp
- She has a solid understanding of particle physics.Category:English terms with usage examples#UNDERSTANDING
- (countableCategory:English countable nouns#UNDERSTANDING) Opinion, judgement, or outlook.
- 1999, Vivian Patraka, Spectacular Suffering: Theatre, Fascism, and the Holocaust:
- It is the goneness of the Holocaust that produces the simultaneous profusion of discourses and understandings; the goneness is what opens up, what spurs, what unleashes the perpetual desire to do, to make, to rethink the Holocaust.Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERSTANDING
- 2002, Ross Mackenzie, Marcus J. Borg, editors, God at 2000, page 48:
- There is a multitude of theisms, many understandings of God, even within the same religious tradition.Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERSTANDING
- 2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
- The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERSTANDING
- According to my understanding, the situation is quite perilous. I wonder if you see it this way, too.Category:English terms with usage examples#UNDERSTANDING
- (countableCategory:English countable nouns#UNDERSTANDING) An agreement of minds; harmony; something mutually understood or agreed upon.
- An informal contract; a mutual agreement.
- I thought we had an understanding - you do the dishes, and I throw the trash.Category:English terms with usage examples#UNDERSTANDING
- A reconciliation of differences.
- The parties of the negotiation have managed to come to an understanding.Category:English terms with usage examples#UNDERSTANDING
- An informal contract; a mutual agreement.
- (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#UNDERSTANDING) Sympathy.
- He showed much understanding for my problems when he heard about my past.Category:English terms with usage examples#UNDERSTANDING
Derived terms
Translations
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
Etymology 2
From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#UNDERSTANDING understandyng, understondynge, understondinde, undirstondend, understandande, from Old EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Old English#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms derived from Old English#UNDERSTANDING understandende, from Proto-West GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#UNDERSTANDING *undarstandandī, from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#UNDERSTANDING *understandandz, present participle of Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#UNDERSTANDING *understandaną (“to stand between, intercede, understand”), equivalent to understand + -ing (present participle ending)Category:English terms suffixed with -ing (participial)#UNDERSTANDING.
Adjective
understanding (comparative more understanding, superlative most understanding)Category:English lemmas#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English adjectives#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Pages with entries#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Pages with 2 entries#UNDERSTANDING
- Showing compassion, tolerance, and forbearance; sympathetically aware.
- (datedCategory:English dated terms#UNDERSTANDING) Knowing; skilful.
Translations
Verb
understandingCategory:English non-lemma forms#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English verb forms#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Pages with entries#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Pages with 2 entries#UNDERSTANDING
- present participle and gerund of understand
- 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERSTANDING
Old English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-West GermanicCategory:Old English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Old English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#UNDERSTANDING *undarstandingu, equivalent to understandan + -ingCategory:Old English terms suffixed with -ing#UNDERSTANDING.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌun.derˈstɑn.dinɡ/, [ˌun.derˈstɑn.diŋɡ]Category:Old English terms with IPA pronunciation#UNDERSTANDING
Noun
understanding fCategory:Old English lemmas#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Old English nouns#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Old English entries with incorrect language header#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Old English feminine nouns#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Pages with entries#UNDERSTANDINGCategory:Pages with 2 entries#UNDERSTANDING
Declension
Strong ō-stem:
Synonyms
Descendants
- Middle English: understandinge, understondinge
- English: understanding
- Scots: understanding