understanding

plural understandings

1. uncountablewith ofThe act of one that understands or comprehends; the mental process of discernment of meaning.

   There are certain things that defy human understanding.

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   The Ways of Heav’n are dark and intricate, Puzzled in Mazes, and perplext with Errors; Our Underſtanding traces ’em in vain, Loſt and bewilder’d in the fruitleſs Search; […]

   1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2

   Synonyms: comprehension

2. countablewith ofReason or intelligence; ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge; ability to infer.

   She has a solid understanding of particle physics.

   Synonyms: comprehension, grasp

3. countablewith ofOpinion, judgement, or outlook.

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

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   It is the goneness of the Holocaust that produces the simultaneous profusion of discourses and understandings; the goneness is what opens up, what spurs, what unleashes the perpetual desire to do, to make, to rethink the Holocaust.

   1999, Vivian Patraka, Spectacular Suffering: Theatre, Fascism, and the Holocaust

   There is a multitude of theisms, many understandings of God, even within the same religious tradition.

   2002, Ross Mackenzie, Marcus J. Borg, editors, God at 2000, page 48

   The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.

   2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847

4. An agreement of minds; harmony; something mutually understood or agreed upon.
   1. countableuncountablewith ofAn informal contract; a mutual agreement.

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

   2. countableuncountablewith ofA reconciliation of differences.

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

5. uncountablewith ofSympathy.

   He showed much understanding for my problems when he heard about my past.

6. colloquialcountablein pluraluncountablewith ofLegs or feet.

   Typist going up Roger Greene's stairs two at a time to show her understandings.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 13: Nausicaa]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 355

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   She had on a short petticoat that showed a […] considerable chunk of understandings.

   1854, Ann S. Stephens, High Life in New York, London edition, page 54

comparative more understanding · superlative most understanding

1. Showing compassion, tolerance, and forbearance; sympathetically aware.
2. datedKnowing; skilful.

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of understand

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   It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.

   2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36