Understanding (root: understand)

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: un=der=stand=ing

CIDE DICTIONARY

Understanding, a. 

 Knowing; intelligent; skillful; as, he is an understanding man.  [1913 Webster]

Understanding, n. 

•  The act of one who understands a thing, in any sense of the verb; knowledge; discernment; comprehension; interpretation; explanation.  [1913 Webster]
•  An agreement of opinion or feeling; adjustment of differences; harmony; anything mutually understood or agreed upon; as, to come to an understanding with another.  [1913 Webster]

  "He hoped the loyalty of his subjects would concur with him in the preserving of a good understanding between him and his people."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding."  [1913 Webster]

  "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."  [1913 Webster]

  "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."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "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."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Sense; intelligence; perception. See Sense.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Understanding, n. & adj.
--n.
1 a the ability to understand or think; intelligence. b the power of apprehension; the power of abstract thought.
2 an individual's perception or judgement of a situation etc.
3 an agreement; a thing agreed upon, esp. informally (had an understanding with the rival company; consented only on this understanding).
4 harmony in opinion or feeling (disturbed the good understanding between them).
5 sympathetic awareness or tolerance.
--adj.
1 having understanding or insight or good judgement.
2 sympathetic to others' feelings.

Derivative

understandingly adv.

Etymology

OE (as UNDERSTAND)

DEVIL DICTIONARY

Understanding

n. A cerebral secretion that enables one having it to know a house from a horse by the roof on the house. Its nature and laws have been exhaustively expounded by Locke, who rode a house, and Kant, who lived in a horse.

His understanding was so keen
That all things which he'd felt, heard, seen,
He could interpret without fail
If he was in or out of jail.
He wrote at Inspiration's call
Deep disquisitions on them all,
Then, pent at last in an asylum,
Performed the service to compile 'em.
So great a writer, all men swore,
They never had not read before.
Jorrock Wormley

THESAURUS

Understanding

IQ, Spartan, Vernunft, abatement of differences, acceptation, accepting, acclamation, accommodation, accord, accordance, accordant, acute, adjustment, affinity, agape, agreeable, agreeing, agreement, agreement of all, akin, all-knowing, alliance, amicable, amity, apperception, apperceptive, appercipient, apprehending, apprehension, apprehensive, argute, armed with patience, armistice, arrangement, astute, at one, attuned, aware, awareness, bargain, binding agreement, bleeding, bond, bonds of harmony, brain, brains, bright, brotherly love, caliber, capacity, caritas, cartel, cement of friendship, charitable, charity, chorus, clairvoyance, clement, cogent, cognizant, collective agreement, command, commiserative, commitment, common assent, common consent, communion, community, community of interests, compact, compassionate, compatibility, compatible, composition, comprehending, comprehension, compromise, conception, conceptive, conceptual, conceptualization, concert, concession, concord, concordance, concordant, concordat, concurrence, condolent, congenial, congeniality, conscious, consensus, consensus gentium, consensus of opinion, consensus omnium, consent, consentaneity, consortium, contract, convention, cop-out, cordial understanding, correspondence, corresponding, covenant, covenant of salt, deal, deductive power, desertion of principle, dicker, discerning, discernment, disciplined, discourse of reason, discrimination, discursive, discursive reason, empathetic, empathic, empathy, employment contract, en rapport, endurant, engagement, enlightenment, entente, entente cordiale, esemplastic power, esprit, esprit de corps, estimation, evasion of responsibility, farseeing, farsighted, feeling of identity, fellow feeling, fellowship, fix on, forbearant, forbearing, foreknowledge, foreseeing, foresighted, forethoughted, forethoughtful, formal agreement, frictionless, frictionlessness, general acclamation, general agreement, general consent, general voice, gentle, give-and-take, giving way, good sense, good vibes, good vibrations, grasp, gray matter, grip, happy family, harmonious, harmony, head, headpiece, human, humane, ideation, ideational, identity, import, in accord, in concert, in rapport, in tune, incisive, indulgent, inharmony, insight, insightful, integrative power, intellect, intellection, intellectual, intellectual faculty, intellectual grasp, intellectual power, intellectualism, intellectuality, intelligence, intelligence quotient, intelligent, intendment, interpretation, intuition, ironclad agreement, judgement, kinship, knowing, knowledge, knowledgeable, legal agreement, legal contract, lenient, like-minded, like-mindedness, long-suffering, longheaded, longsighted, love, mastery, meaning, meeting of minds, melting, mens, mental age, mental capacity, mental grasp, mental ratio, mentality, merciful, message, mind, mindful, mother wit, mutual agreement, mutual concession, mutual understanding, mutuality, native wit, noetic, not so dumb, notion, nous, obligation, of one mind, omniscient, one accord, one voice, oneness, opinion, pact, paction, patient, patient as Job, peace, peaceful, penetrating, penetration, perception, perceptive, percipience, percipient, persevering, perspicacious, perspicuous, philosophical, piercing, pitying, power of mind, power of reason, precognition, preengagement, prehensile, prehension, promise, protocol, provident, psyche, purport, rapport, rapprochement, ratio, rational, rationality, reading, reason, reasonable, reasoning, reasoning faculty, reasoning power, reciprocity, recognizance, reconciliation, ruthful, sagacious, sagacity, sageness, same mind, sane, sanity, sapience, savvy, scope of mind, self-controlled, sense, sensible, sensitiveness, sensitivity, settlement, sharing, shrewd, significance, significancy, signification, single voice, smarts, soft, softhearted, solidarity, sophic, stipulation, stoic, strong-minded, surrender, sympathetic, sympathizing, sympathy, symphony, team spirit, tender, tenderhearted, thinking power, together, tolerant, tolerating, tolerative, total agreement, transaction, treaty, trenchant, truce, unanimity, unanimousness, undertaking, union, union contract, unison, united, unity, universal agreement, valid contract, verbal agreement, view, wage contract, warmhearted, wisdom, wise, wit, yielding

ROGET THESAURUS

Understanding

Agreement

N agreement, accord, accordance, unison, harmony, concord, concordance, concert, understanding, mutual understanding, conformity, conformance, uniformity, consonance, consentaneousness, consistency, congruity, congruence, keeping, congeniality, correspondence, parallelism, apposition, union, fitness, aptness, relevancy, pertinence, pertinencey, sortance, case in point, aptitude, coaptation, propriety, applicability, admissibility, commensurability, compatibility, cognation, adaption, adjustment, graduation, accommodation, reconciliation, reconcilement, assimilation, consent, concurrence, cooperation, right man in the right place, very thing, quite the thing, just the thing, agreeing, suiting, in accord, accordant, concordant, consonant, congruous, consentaneous, correspondent, congenial, coherent, becoming, harmonious reconcilable, conformable, in accordance with, in harmony with, in keeping with, in unison with at one with, of one mind, of a piece, consistent, compatible, proportionate, commensurate, on all fours, apt, apposite, pertinent, pat, to the point, to the purpose, happy, felicitous, germane, ad rem, in point, on point, directly on point, bearing upon, applicable, relevant, admissible, fit adapted, in loco, a propos, appropriate, seasonable, sortable, suitable, idoneous, deft, meet, at home, in one's proper element, a propos of, pertinently, rem acu tetigisti, if the shoe fits, wear it, the cap fits, auxilia humilia firma consensus facit, discers concordia.

Intellect

N intellect, mind, understanding, reason, thinking principle, rationality, cogitative faculties, cognitive faculties, discursive faculties, reasoning faculties, intellectual faculties, faculties, senses, consciousness, observation, percipience, intelligence, intellection, intuition, association of ideas, instinct, conception, judgment, wits, parts, capacity, intellectuality, genius, brains, cognitive powers, intellectual powers, wit, ability, wisdom, Vernunft, Verstand, soul, spirit, ghost, inner man, heart, breast, bosom, penetralia mentis, divina particula aurae, heart's core, the Absolute, psyche, subliminal consciousness, supreme principle, brain, organ of thought, seat of thought, sensorium, sensory, head, headpiece, pate, noddle, noggin, skull, scull, pericranium, cerebrum, cranium, brainpan, sconce, upper story, central processing unit, CPU, arithmetic and logical unit, ALU, metaphysics, psychics, psychology, ideology, mental philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of the mind, pneumatology, phrenology, craniology, cranioscopy, ideality, idealism, transcendentalism, spiritualism, immateriality, universal concept, universal conception, metaphysician, psychologist, intellectual, mental, rational, subjective, metaphysical, nooscopic, spiritual, ghostly, psychical, psychological, cerebral, animastic, brainy, hyperphysical, superphysical, subconscious, subliminal, immaterial, endowed with reason, in petto, ens rationis, frons est animi janua, locos y ninos dicen la verdad, mens sola loco non exulat, my mind is my kingdom, stern men with empires in their brains, the mind, the music breathing from her face, thou living ray of intellectual Fire.

Wisdom

N intelligence, wisdom, intelligence, capacity, comprehension, understanding, cuteness, sabe, savvy, intellect, nous, parts, sagacity, mother wit, wit, esprit, gumption, quick parts, grasp of intellect, acuteness, acumen, subtlety, penetration, perspicacy, perspicacity, discernment, due sense of, good judgment, discrimination, cunning, refinement, head, brains, headpiece, upper story, long head, eagle eye, eagle- glance, eye of a lynx, eye of a hawk, wisdom, sapience, sense, good sense, common sense, horse sense, plain sense, rationality, reason, reasonableness, judgment, solidity, depth, profundity, caliber, enlarged views, reach of thought, compass of thought, enlargement of mind, genius, inspiration, geist, fire of genius, heaven-born genius, soul, talent, prudence, vigilance, tact, foresight, sobriety, self-possession, aplomb, ballast, a bright thought, not a bad idea, Solomon-like wisdom, intelligent, quick of apprehension, keen, acute, alive, brainy, awake, bright, quick, sharp, quick witted, keen witted, clear witted, sharp-eyed, sharp sighted, sharp witted, wide- awake, canny, shrewd, astute, clear-headed, farsighted, discerning, perspicacious, penetrating, piercing, argute, quick-witted, nimble-witted, needle-witted, sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack, alive to, clever, arch, pas si bete, acute, wise, sage, sapient, sagacious, reasonable, rational, sound, in one's right mind, sensible, abnormis sapiens, judicious, strong- minded, unprejudiced, unbiased, unbigoted, unprepossessed, undazzled, unperplexed, unwarped judgment, impartial, equitable, fair, cool, cool-headed, long-headed, hardheaded, strong-headed, long- sighted, calculating, thoughtful, reflecting, solid, deep, profound, oracular, heaven-directed, heaven-born, prudent, sober, stand, solid, considerate, politic, wise in one's generation, watchful, provident, in advance of one' age, wise as a serpent, wise as Solomon, wise as Solon, wise, sensible, reasonable, judicious, well- thought-out, well-planned, well-judged, well-advised, prudent, politic, expedient, aut regem aut fatuum nasci oportet, but with the morning cool reflection came, flosculi sententiarum, les affaires font les hommes, mas vale saber que haber, mas vale ser necio que profiadol nemo solus sapit, nosce te, gnothi seauton, nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit, sapere aude, victrix fortunae sapientia.