What is the difference between believe and belief?
believe | belief | Related terms |
(label) To accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing)
* 1611 , (King James Version of the Bible), 1:1 :
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) To accept that someone is telling the truth.
(label) To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.
Mental acceptance of a claim as likely true.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-12-06, author=(George Monbiot)
, volume=189, issue=26, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= 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) Something believed.
(uncountable) The quality or state of believing.
(uncountable) Religious faith.
(in the plural) One's religious or moral convictions.
Belief is a related term of believe.
As a verb believe
is to accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing.As a noun belief is
mental acceptance of a claim as likely true.believe
English
Alternative forms
* beleeve (obsolete)Verb
(believ)- (Here, the speaker merely accepts the accuracy of the conditional.)
- Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us
Magician’s brain, passage=[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.}}
Usage notes
* The transitive verb believe and the phrasal verb (m) are similar but can have very different implications. ** To “believe” someone or something means to accept specific pieces of information as truth: believe the news'', ''believe the lead witness . To “believe a complete stranger” means to accept a stranger's story with little evidence. ** To “believe in” someone or something means to hold confidence and trust in that person or concept: believe in liberty'', ''believe in God . To “believe in one's fellow man” means to place trust and confidence in mankind. * Meanings sometimes overlap. To believe in'' a religious text would also require affirming the truth of at least the major tenets. To ''believe a religious text might likewise imply placing one's confidence and trust in it, in addition to accepting its statements as facts.Derived terms
* believable * believability * believer * believe in * believe it or not * believe one's eyes * believe you me * disbelieve * unbelievable * unbelieverStatistics
* ----belief
English
Noun
(en noun)Why I'm eating my words on veganism – again, passage=The belief that there is no conflict between [livestock] farming and arable production also seems to be unfounded: by preventing the growth of trees and other deep vegetation in the hills and by compacting the soil, grazing animals cause a cycle of flash floods and drought, sporadically drowning good land downstream and reducing the supply of irrigation water.}}