What is the difference between believe and understand?
believe | understand |
(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.
(lb) To be aware of the meaning of.
:
:
*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
*:I understand not what you mean by this.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=
, volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To believe, based on information.
:
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=Foreword To impute meaning, character etc. that is not explicitly stated.
:
:In this sense, the word is usually used in the past participle:
::
*(John Locke) (1632-1705)
*:The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel.
*
*:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
To stand under; to support.
:(Shakespeare)
Understand is a synonym of believe.
In transitive terms the difference between believe and understand
is that believe is to accept that someone is telling the truth while understand is to be aware of the meaning of.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
* ----understand
English
Alternative forms
* understaund (obsolete)Verb
Sam Leith
Where the profound meets the profane, passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.}}
citation, passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War.