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Understand vs Incomprehension - What's the difference?

understand | incomprehension |

As a verb understand

is to be aware of the meaning of.

As a noun incomprehension is

want or lack of comprehension or understanding; inability to understand.

understand

English

Alternative forms

* understaund (obsolete)

Verb

  • (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= Sam Leith
    • , volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= 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.}}
  • To believe, based on information.
  • :
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword 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.
  • 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)

    • Usage notes

    * Common objects of this verb include text'', ''word(s)'', ''sentence(s)'', ''note(s) , etc. * Rarely, the obsolete past tense form understanded'' may be found, e.g. in the ''Book of Common Prayer'' and ''Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church .

    Synonyms

    * (to know the meaning) apprehend, comprehend, grasp, know, perceive, pick up what someone is putting down, realise, grok * (to believe) believe

    Antonyms

    * misunderstand

    Derived terms

    * I don’t understand * understandable * understanding * understood

    See also

    * explain * why

    External links

    * *

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words English irregular verbs English words prefixed with under-

    incomprehension

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • Want or lack of comprehension or understanding; inability to understand.
  • * 1873 , , A Pair of Blue Eyes
    • Stephen blushed; and his father looked from one to the other in a state of utter incomprehension .
  • * 1901 , , The Lord of the Sea
    • (...) and the wearied worker, borne at evening through crowded undergrounds, might read his name with a listless incomprehension .
  • * 1954 ,
    • Simon broke off and turned to Piggy who was looking at him with an expression of derisive incomprehension .
  • * 1974 ,
    • The aide gave the old men in Ward Two their medicine, and they joked with her. Shevek watched with dull incomprehension .
  • * 1995 , Gary Wolf, "The Curse of Xanadu", Wired Magazine
    • As a guest lecturer in Nelson's class, Miller ran through his ideas for a Xanadu-like software system. Afterward, he was approached by one of the students, Stuart Greene. Miller asked Greene what the reaction to his ideas had been. Not so good, Greene informed him. As always, the class had listened in dumb incomprehension . They seldom understood what Nelson was talking about, and when Miller launched into a similar enthusiastic tirade, their response, Greene laughed, was "Oh, no, we can't believe there's another one!"

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l)

    Antonyms

    * (l)

    References

    * *