understanding definition | Dictionary.com

un⋅der⋅stand⋅ing

[uhn-der-stan-ding]

–noun

1.	mental process of a person who comprehends; comprehension; personal interpretation: My understanding of the word does not agree with yours.

2.	intellectual faculties; intelligence; mind: a quick understanding.

3.	superior power of discernment; enlightened intelligence: With her keen understanding she should have become a leader.

4.	knowledge of or familiarity with a particular thing; skill in dealing with or handling something: an understanding of accounting practice.

5.	a state of cooperative or mutually tolerant relations between people: To him, understanding and goodwill were the supreme virtues.

6.	a mutual agreement, esp. of a private, unannounced, or tacit kind: They had an understanding about who would do the dishes.

7.	an agreement regulating joint activity or settling differences, often informal or preliminary in character: After hours of negotiation, no understanding on a new contract was reached.

Philosophy.

a.	the power of abstract thought; logical power.

b.	Kantianism. the mental faculty resolving the sensory manifold into the transcendental unity of apperception.

–adjective

9.	characterized by understanding; prompted by, based on, or demonstrating comprehension, intelligence, discernment, empathy, or the like: an understanding attitude.

Origin:
bef. 1050; ME understandynge, late OE understandincge (n.). See understand, -ing ¹ , -ing ²

Related forms:

un⋅der⋅stand⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

un⋅der⋅stand

[uhn-der-stand]

verb, -stood, -stand⋅ing.

–verb (used with object)

1.	to perceive the meaning of; grasp the idea of; comprehend: to understand Spanish; I didn't understand your question.

2.	to be thoroughly familiar with; apprehend clearly the character, nature, or subtleties of: to understand a trade.

3.	to assign a meaning to; interpret: He understood her suggestion as a complaint.

4.	to grasp the significance, implications, or importance of: He does not understand responsibility.

5.	to regard as firmly communicated; take as agreed or settled: I understand that you will repay this loan in 30 days.

6.	to learn or hear: I understand that you are going out of town.

7.	to accept as true; believe: I understand that you are trying to be truthful, but you are wrong.

8.	to construe in a particular way: You are to understand the phrase literally.

9.	to supply mentally (something that is not expressed).

–verb (used without object)

10.	to perceive what is meant; grasp the information conveyed: She told them about it in simple words, hoping they would understand.

11.	to accept tolerantly or sympathetically: If you can't do it, I'll understand.

12.	to have knowledge or background, as on a particular subject: He understands about boats.

13.	to have a systematic interpretation or rationale, as in a field or area of knowledge: He can repeat every rule in the book, but he just doesn't understand.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME understanden, understonden, OE understondan; c. D onderstaan. See under-, stand

Synonyms:
1. See know ¹ .

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To understanding

un·der·stand (ŭn'dər-stānd')

v. un·der·stood (-stŏŏd'), un·der·stand·ing, un·der·stands

v. tr.

To perceive and comprehend the nature and significance of; grasp. See Synonyms at apprehend.
To know thoroughly by close contact or long experience with: That teacher understands children.
1. To grasp or comprehend the meaning intended or expressed by (another): They have trouble with English, but I can understand them.
2. To comprehend the language, sounds, form, or symbols of.
To know and be tolerant or sympathetic toward: I can understand your point of view even though I disagree with it.
To learn indirectly, as by hearsay: I understand his departure was unexpected.
To infer: Am I to understand you are staying the night?
To accept (something) as an agreed fact: It is understood that the fee will be 50 dollars.
To supply or add (words or a meaning, for example) mentally.

v. intr.

1. To have understanding, knowledge, or comprehension.
2. To have sympathy or tolerance.
To learn something indirectly or secondhand; gather.

[Middle English understanden, from Old English understandan : under-, under- + standan, to stand; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

un·der·stand·ing (ŭn'dər-stān'dĭng)

The quality or condition of one who understands; comprehension.
The faculty by which one understands; intelligence. See Synonyms at reason.
Individual or specified judgment or outlook; opinion.
1. A compact implicit between two or more people or groups.
2. The matter implicit in such a compact.
A reconciliation of differences; a state of agreement: They finally reached an understanding.
A disposition to appreciate or share the feelings and thoughts of others; sympathy.

adj.

Characterized by or having comprehension, good sense, or discernment.
Compassionate; sympathetic.

un'der·stand'ing·ly adv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Understanding

Un`der*stand"ing\, a. Knowing; intelligent; skillful; as, he is an understanding man.

Understanding

Un`der*stand"ing\, n. 1. The act of one who understands a thing, in any sense of the verb; knowledge; discernment; comprehension; interpretation; explanation.

2. An agreement of opinion or feeling; adjustment of differences; harmony; anything mutually understood or agreed upon; as, to come to an understanding with another.

He hoped the loyalty of his subjects would concur with him in the preserving of a good understanding between him and his people. --Clarendon.

3. The power to understand; the intellectual faculty; the intelligence; the rational powers collectively conceived an designated; the higher capacities of the intellect; the power to distinguish truth from falsehood, and to adapt means to ends.

There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty them understanding. --Job xxxii. 8.

The power of perception is that which we call the understanding. Perception, which we make the act of the understanding, is of three sorts: 1. The perception of ideas in our mind; 2. The perception of the signification of signs; 3. The perception of the connection or repugnancy, agreement or disagreement, that there is between any of our ideas. All these are attributed to the understanding, or perceptive power, though it be the two latter only that use allows us to say we understand. --Locke.

In its wider acceptation, understanding is the entire power of perceiving an conceiving, exclusive of the sensibility: the power of dealing with the impressions of sense, and composing them into wholes, according to a law of unity; and in its most comprehensive meaning it includes even simple apprehension. --Coleridge.

4. Specifically, the discursive faculty; the faculty of knowing by the medium or use of general conceptions or relations. In this sense it is contrasted with, and distinguished from, the reason.

I use the term understanding, not for the noetic faculty, intellect proper, or place of principles, but for the dianoetic or discursive faculty in its widest signification, for the faculty of relations or comparisons; and thus in the meaning in which "verstand" is now employed by the Germans. --Sir W. Hamilton.

Syn: Sense; intelligence; perception. See Sense.

Language Translation for : understanding

Spanish: comprensivo,

German: verständnisvoll,

Japanese: 理解のある

More Translations »

understanding

O.E. understandincge "comprehension," from understand (q.v.). Meaning "mutual agreement" is attested from 1803.

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