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View synonyms for understanding

understanding

[ 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, especially 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.

  8. Philosophy.
    1. the power of abstract thought; logical power.
    2. Kantianism. the mental faculty resolving the sensory manifold into the transcendental unity of apperception.


adjective

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

    an understanding attitude.

understanding

/ ˌʌndəˈstændɪŋ /

noun

  1. the ability to learn, judge, make decisions, etc; intelligence or sense
  2. personal opinion or interpretation of a subject

    my understanding of your predicament

  3. a mutual agreement or compact, esp an informal or private one
  4. an unofficial engagement to be married
  5. archaic.
    philosophy the mind, esp the faculty of reason
  6. on the understanding that
    on the understanding that with the condition that; providing


adjective

  1. sympathetic, tolerant, or wise towards people
  2. possessing judgment and intelligence

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Derived Forms

  • ˌunderˈstandingly, adverb

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Other Words From

  • under·standing·ly adverb
  • nonun·der·standing adjective noun
  • nonun·der·standing·ly adverb
  • self-under·standing noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of understanding1

First recorded before 1050; understand + -ing 1( def )

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Example Sentences

People get an approximate social understanding and that seems to work pretty well.

Jalisa Washington-Price, vice president, political and advocacy, iHeartMediaJane Mayer’s book gave me a deep understanding about the problem I wanted to fix.

From Fortune

Then, follow-up with why you grouped the ones that set off the same search results and are part of the same topic, for more understanding.

Although he wasn’t working for the co-op at that time, Miltenberger said, it is his understanding that the hospital wanted to help keep competition in that marketplace.

From Fortune

The goal is to develop a deeper understanding of how different approaches work or fall short.

Nothing made Groucho funnier than having this Margaret Dumont around not understanding the jokes.

Understanding my own dreams had a lot to do with getting me off the juice.

As she discussed her understanding of the voting rights campaign and how she planned to recreate it, I grew more relieved.

My understanding was that according to most Christian beliefs, being trans or gay was a sin, cut and dry.

Now half-awake, we need all the help we can get in understanding our situation.

I would ask you to imagine it translated into every language, a common material of understanding throughout all the world.

Our social life is aimless without it, we are a crowd without a common understanding.

The hopes of a man that is void of understanding are vain and deceitful: and dreams lift up fools.

The friars were exceedingly wroth, and combined to defeat the Generalʼs efforts to come to an understanding with the rebels.

The two enjoyed a mutual understanding from which he was excluded, a private intimacy that was spiritual, mental,— physical.

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understandableunderstate