Definitions for understanding
ˌʌn dərˈstæn dɪŋun·der·stand·ing

Princeton's WordNet(2.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. understanding, apprehension, discernment, savvy(noun)

   the cognitive condition of someone who understands

   "he has virtually no understanding of social cause and effect"

2. agreement, understanding(noun)

   the statement (oral or written) of an exchange of promises

   "they had an agreement that they would not interfere in each other's business"; "there was an understanding between management and the workers"

3. sympathy, understanding(noun)

   an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion

   "his sympathies were always with the underdog"; "I knew I could count on his understanding"

4. reason, understanding, intellect(adj)

   the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination

   "we are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil"

5. understanding(adj)

   characterized by understanding based on comprehension and discernment and empathy

   "an understanding friend"

Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. understanding(Noun)

   Mental, sometimes emotional process of comprehension, assimilation of knowledge, which is subjective by its nature.

2. understanding(Noun)

   Reason or intelligence, ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge, ability to infer.

3. understanding(Noun)

   Opinion, judgement or outlook.

   According to my understanding, the situation is quite perilous. I wonder if you see it this way, too.

4. understanding(Noun)

   An informal contract, mutual agreement.

   I thought we had an understanding - you do the dishes, and I throw the trash.

5. understanding(Noun)

   A reconciliation of differences.

   The parties of the negotiation have managed to come to an understanding.

6. understanding(Noun)

   Sympathy.

   He showed much understanding when he found out of my troublesome familial history.

7. understanding(Noun)

   All that people individually sense and feel of themselves.

8. understanding(Adjective)

   Showing compassion.

Webster Dictionary(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Understanding

   of Understand

2. Understanding(adj)

   knowing; intelligent; skillful; as, he is an understanding man

3. Understanding(noun)

   the act of one who understands a thing, in any sense of the verb; knowledge; discernment; comprehension; interpretation; explanation

4. Understanding(noun)

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

5. Understanding(noun)

   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

6. Understanding(noun)

   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

Freebase(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Understanding

   Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of understanding. Understanding implies abilities and dispositions with respect to an object of knowledge sufficient to support intelligent behavior. An understanding is the limit of a conceptualization. To understand something is to have conceptualized it to a given measure.

Editors Contribution(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. understanding

   The intuitive feeling, knowing, intelligence, act, fact and ability to understand.

   It was their understanding that both their families would be attending the full wedding and cousins attending the afters of the wedding.

   Submitted by MaryC on January 20, 2020  

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'understanding' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1354

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'understanding' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2137

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'understanding' in Nouns Frequency: #610

How to pronounce understanding?

1. 

   Alex

   US English

   

   Daniel

   British

   

   Karen

   Australian

   

   Veena

   Indian

How to say understanding in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of understanding in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of understanding in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of understanding in a Sentence

1. Clarence Darrow:

   I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by, reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man. Closing argument in Leopold-Loeb trial,

2. Graham Greene:

   It is the story-teller's task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of State approval.

3. Brian Grefenstette:

   If we're seeing the birth of a compact object in real time, this could be the start of a new chapter in our understanding of stellar evolution, we looked at this object with many different observatories, and of course the more windows you open onto an object, the more you can learn about it. But, as we're seeing with the Cow, that doesn't necessarily mean the solution will be simple.

4. John Herr:

   This is early; it's more about understanding the mechanism involved in fertilization and how you can block the formation of this filament.

5. State John Kerry:

   We're getting closer to a place of understanding, but we have some work to do, and that's why we're here.

Images & Illustrations of understanding

Popularity rank by frequency of use