What is the difference between apprehend and comprehend?
apprehend | comprehend |
(archaic) To take or seize; to take hold of.
* (rfdate), .
To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest.
To take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind; to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider.
* (rfdate), .
* (rfdate)
*
To anticipate; especially, to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear.
* (rfdate) -- .
To think, believe, or be of opinion; to understand; to suppose.
To be apprehensive; to fear.
* (rfdate) .
(material dates from 1913)
* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.1:
* 1776 , (Edward Gibbon), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Penguin 2009, p. 9:
To understand or grasp fully and thoroughly.
Comprehend is a synonym of apprehend.
As verbs the difference between apprehend and comprehend
is that apprehend is to take or seize; to take hold of while comprehend is to include, comprise; to contain.apprehend
English
Verb
(en verb)- We have two hands to apprehend it.
- to apprehend a criminal .
- This suspicion of Earl Reimund, though at first but a buzz, soon got a sting in the king's head, and he violently apprehended it.
- The eternal laws, such as the heroic age apprehended them.
- The opposition had more reason than the king to apprehend violence.
- It is worse to apprehend than to suffer.
Usage notes
To apprehend, comprehend. These words come into comparison as describing acts of the mind. Apprehend denotes the laying hold of a thing mentally, so as to understand it clearly, at least in part. Comprehend denotes the embracing or understanding it in all its compass and extent. We may apprehend many truths which we do not comprehend. The very idea of God supposes that he may be apprehended, though not comprehended, by rational beings. We may apprehend much of Shakespeare's aim and intention in the character of Hamlet or King Lear; but few will claim that they have comprehended all that is embraced in these characters. --Trench.(material dates from 1913)
Derived terms
* apprehension * misapprehendSynonyms
* catch, seize, arrest, detain, capture, conceive, understand, imagine, believe, fear, dreadcomprehend
English
Verb
(en verb)- And lothly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee, / That nought but gall and venim comprehended […].
- In the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.