Belief
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Mental acceptance of a claim as true. countable, uncountable
"It's my belief that the thief is somebody known to us."
- 2 a vague idea in which some confidence is placed wordnet
- 3 Faith or trust in the reality of something; often based upon one's own reasoning, trust in a claim, desire of actuality, and/or evidence considered. countable, uncountable
"My belief is that there is a bear in the woods. Bill said he saw one."
- 4 any cognitive content held as true wordnet
- 5 Something believed. countable
"The ancient people have a belief in many deities."
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 The quality or state of believing. uncountable
"My belief that it will rain tomorrow is strong."
- 7 Religious faith. uncountable
"She often said it was her belief that carried her through the hard times."
- 8 One's religious or moral convictions. countable, in-plural, uncountable
"I can't do that. It's against my beliefs."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"It is a prevalent belief, according to a nationwide poll in the United States, that Muslims are linked with terrorism."
Etymology
From Middle English bileve, from Old English lēafa, from Proto-West Germanic *laubu from Proto-Germanic *laubō. Compare German Glaube (“faith, belief”). The replacement of final /v/ with /f/ is due to the analogy of noun-verb pairs with /f/ in the noun but /v/ in the verb, creating a pair belief : believe on the model of e.g. grief : grieve or proof : prove.
Related phrases
More for "belief"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.