Meanings
- uncountableLack of comprehension or understanding; inability to understand.
Stephen blushed; and his father looked from one to the other in a state of utter incomprehension.
1873, Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes4 more examples
(...) and the wearied worker, borne at evening through crowded undergrounds, might read his name with a listless incomprehension.
1901, M. P. Shiel, The Lord of the SeaSimon broke off and turned to Piggy who was looking at him with an expression of derisive incomprehension.
1954, William Golding, Lord of the FliesThe aide gave the old men in Ward Two their medicine, and they joked with her. Shevek watched with dull incomprehension.
1974, Ursula Leguin, The Dispossessed1995, Gary Wolf, "The Curse of Xanadu", Wired Magazine As a guest lecturer in Nelson's class, Miller ran through his ideas for a Xanadu-like software system. Afterward, he was approached by one of the students, Stuart Greene. Miller asked Greene what the reaction to his ideas had been. Not so good, Greene informed him. As always, the class had listened in dumb incomprehension. They seldom understood what Nelson was talking about […]
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Italic*n̥-
- Latinin-
- Middle Englishin-
- Englishin-
- Englishcomprehension
- Englishincomprehension
From in- + comprehension.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French incompréhension
- incompréhensionlack of comprehension
Hungarian értetlenség
- értetlenséglack of comprehension
Italian incomprensione
- incomprensionelack of comprehension
Japanese 無理解
- 無理解 (murikai)lack of comprehension
Polish niezrozumienie
- niezrozumienielack of comprehension
Russian непонима́ние
- непонима́ние (neponimánije)lack of comprehension
Ukrainian нерозумі́ння
- нерозумі́ння (nerozumínnja)lack of comprehension
Cite this entry
incomprehension. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incomprehension
“incomprehension.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incomprehension. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “incomprehension,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incomprehension.
Source: incomprehension on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.