Understanding

//ʌndəˈstandɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Showing compassion, tolerance, and forbearance; sympathetically aware.
  2. 2
    Knowing; skilful. dated
Adjective
  1. 1
    characterized by understanding based on comprehension and discernment and empathy wordnet
Noun
  1. 1
    The act of one that understands or comprehends; the mental process of discernment of meaning. uncountable, with-of

    "There are certain things that defy human understanding."

  2. 2
    the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination wordnet
  3. 3
    Reason or intelligence; ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge; ability to infer. countable, with-of

    "She has a solid understanding of particle physics."

  4. 4
    the cognitive condition of someone who understands wordnet
  5. 5
    Opinion, judgement, or outlook. countable, with-of

    "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."

Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion wordnet
  2. 7
    An agreement of minds; harmony; something mutually understood or agreed upon.; An informal contract; a mutual agreement. countable, uncountable, with-of

    "I thought we had an understanding - you do the dishes, and I throw the trash."

  3. 8
    the statement (oral or written) of an exchange of promises wordnet
  4. 9
    An agreement of minds; harmony; something mutually understood or agreed upon.; A reconciliation of differences. countable, uncountable, with-of

    "The parties of the negotiation have managed to come to an understanding."

  5. 10
    Sympathy. uncountable, with-of

    "He showed much understanding for my problems when he heard about my past."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of understand form-of, gerund, participle, present

    "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."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English understandinge, understondinge, from Old English understanding (“intelligence, understanding”), from Proto-West Germanic *undarstandingu, from Proto-Germanic *understandingō, equivalent to understand + -ing (gerund ending). Cognate with Middle Dutch onderstaninge, Middle Low German understandinge, Middle High German understandunge.

Etymology 2

From Middle English understandyng, understondynge, understondinde, undirstondend, understandande, from Old English understandende, from Proto-West Germanic *undarstandandī, from Proto-Germanic *understandandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *understandaną (“to stand between, intercede, understand”), equivalent to understand + -ing (present participle ending).

Etymology 3

From Middle English understandyng, understondynge, understondinde, undirstondend, understandande, from Old English understandende, from Proto-West Germanic *undarstandandī, from Proto-Germanic *understandandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *understandaną (“to stand between, intercede, understand”), equivalent to understand + -ing (present participle ending).

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