Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The ability by which one understands; intelligence.
  • noun The quality or condition of one who understands; comprehension: synonym: reason.
  • noun Individual or specified judgment or outlook; opinion.
  • noun A usually implicit agreement between two or more people or groups.
  • noun A disposition to appreciate or share the feelings and thoughts of others; sympathy.
  • adjective Characterized by or having good sense or compassion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of one who understands or comprehends; comprehension; apprehension and appreciation; discernment.
  • noun The knowing power, in general; intelligence; wit.
  • noun The representative faculty; the power of abstract thought; the logical power.
  • noun Intelligence between two or more persons; agreement of minds; harmony; union of sentiment; also, something mutually understood or agreed upon: as, there was an understanding between them.
  • Knowing; skilful; intelligent; possessed of or exhibiting good sense.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of one who understands a thing, in any sense of the verb; knowledge; discernment; comprehension; interpretation; explanation.
  • noun An agreement of opinion or feeling; adjustment of differences; harmony; anything mutually understood or agreed upon.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • adjective Knowing; intelligent; skillful.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable Mental, sometimes emotional process of comprehension, assimilation of knowledge, which is subjective by its nature.
  • noun countable Reason or intelligence, ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge, ability to infer.
  • noun countable Opinion, judgement or outlook.
  • noun countable An informal contract, mutual agreement.
  • noun countable A reconciliation of differences.
  • noun uncountable Sympathy.
  • noun All that people individually sense and feel of themselves.
  • adjective Showing compassion.
  • verb Present participle of understand.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion
  • noun the capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination
  • adjective characterized by understanding based on comprehension and discernment and empathy
  • noun the statement (oral or written) of an exchange of promises
  • noun the cognitive condition of someone who understands

Etymologies

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  • Waking up to what life's really about is not a cure for being dissatisfied. What it gives is an understanding of the nature of your dissatisfaction. Understanding is the closest thing there is in life for a cure for anything.

    --Jan Cox

    May 22, 2007