understanding
adjective
- understand, comprehending
noun
- ability to think about and use concepts to deal adequately with an object
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ʌndəˈstandɪŋ/ / /ˌʌndɚˈstændɪŋ/
adj
Etymology: 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).
- Showing compassion, tolerance, and forbearance; sympathetically aware.
- Knowing; skilful.
noun
Etymology: 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.
- The act of one that understands or comprehends; the mental process of discernment of meaning.
“There are certain things that defy human understanding.”
“The Ways of Heav’n are dark and intricate, Puzzled in Mazes, and perplext with Errors; Our Underſtanding traces ’em in vain, Loſt and bewilder’d in the fruitleſs Search; […]”
- Reason or intelligence; ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge; ability to infer.
“She has a solid understanding of particle physics.”
- Opinion, judgement, or outlook.
“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.”
“There is a multitude of theisms, many understandings of God, even within the same religious tradition.”
- An agreement of minds; harmony; something mutually understood or agreed upon.
“I thought we had an understanding - you do the dishes, and I throw the trash.”
- An agreement of minds; harmony; something mutually understood or agreed upon.
“The parties of the negotiation have managed to come to an understanding.”
- Sympathy.
“He showed much understanding for my problems when he heard about my past.”
verb
Etymology: 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).
- present participle and gerund of understand
“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.”