Belief

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: be=lief

CIDE DICTIONARY

Belief, n. [OE. bileafe, bileve; cf. AS. geleáfa. See Believe.].

•  Assent to a proposition or affirmation, or the acceptance of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or testimony; partial or full assurance without positive knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction; confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our senses.  [1913 Webster]

  "Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest suspicion to the fullest assurance."  [1913 Webster]
•  A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith.  [1913 Webster]

  "No man can attain [to] belief by the bare contemplation of heaven and earth."  [1913 Webster]
•  The thing believed; the object of belief.  [1913 Webster]

  "Superstitious prophecies are not only the belief of fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men."  [1913 Webster]
•  A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of any class of views; doctrine; creed.  [1913 Webster]

  "In the heat of persecution to which Christian belief was subject upon its first promulgation."  [1913 Webster]

Ultimate belief, a first principle incapable of proof; an intuitive truth; an intuition. Sir W. Hamilton.

Syn. -- Credence; trust; reliance; assurance; opinion.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Belief, n.
1 a a person's religion; religious conviction (has no belief). b a firm opinion (my belief is that he did it). c an acceptance (of a thing, fact, statement, etc.) (belief in the afterlife).
2 (usu. foll. by in) trust or confidence.

Idiom

beyond belief incredible. to the best of my belief in my genuine opinion.

Etymology

ME f. OE geleafa (as BELIEVE)

THESAURUS

Belief

a belief, acceptance, acquiescence, arrogance, article of faith, assent, assurance, assuredness, axiom, canon, certainty, certitude, cocksureness, concept, confidence, confidentness, conviction, courage, credence, credibility, credit, credo, creed, dependence, doctrine, dogma, eye, faith, feeling, fundamental, hubris, idea, intuition, judgement, law, maxim, mind, opinion, orthodoxy, overconfidence, oversureness, overweening, overweeningness, persuasion, poise, pomposity, positiveness, precept, pride, principle, principles, reliance, religion, religious belief, religious faith, security, self-assurance, self-confidence, self-importance, self-reliance, sentiment, settled belief, subjective certainty, sureness, surety, system of beliefs, teaching, tenet, theology, tradition, trust, trustworthiness, view

ROGET THESAURUS

Belief

Belief

N belief, credence, credit, assurance, faith, trust, troth, confidence, presumption, sanguine expectation, dependence on, reliance on, persuasion, conviction, convincement, plerophory, self- conviction, certainty, opinion, mind, view, conception, thinking, impression, surmise, conclusion, tenet, dogma, principle, way of thinking, popular belief, firm belief, implicit belief, settled belief, fixed rooted deep- rooted belief, staunch belief, unshaken belief, steadfast belief, inveterate belief, calm belief, sober belief, dispassionate belief, impartial belief, well-founded belief, firm opinion, implicit opinion, settled opinion, fixed rooted deep-rooted opinion, staunch opinion, unshaken opinion, steadfast opinion, inveterate opinion, calm opinion, sober opinion, dispassionate opinion, impartial opinion, well-founded opinion, uberrima fides, system of opinions, school, doctrine, articles, canons, article of faith, declaration of faith, profession of faith, tenets, credenda, creed, thirty-nine articles, catechism, assent, propaganda, credibility, believing, certain, sure, assured, positive, cocksure, satisfied, confident, unhesitating, convinced, secure, under the impression, impressed with, imbued with, penetrated with, confiding, suspectless, unsuspecting, unsuspicious, void of suspicion, credulous, wedded to, believed, accredited, putative, unsuspected, worthy of, deserving of, commanding belief, credible, reliable, trustworthy, to be depended on, satisfactory, probably, fiducial, fiduciary, persuasive, impressive, relating to belief, doctrinal, in the opinion of, in the eyes of, me judice, meseems, methinks, to the best of one's belief, I dare say, I doubt not, I have no doubt, I am sure, sure enough, depend upon, rely upon it, be assured, rest assured, I'll warrant you, experto crede, fata viam invenient, Justitiae soror incorrupta Fides, live to explain thy doctrine by thy life, stands not within the prospect of belief, tarde quae credita laedunt credimus, vide et crede.