comprehension
Americannoun
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the act or process of comprehending.
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the state of being comprehended.
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perception or understanding.
His comprehension of physics is amazing for a young student.
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capacity of the mind to perceive and understand; power to grasp ideas; ability to know.
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Logic. the connotation of a term.
noun
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the act or capacity of understanding
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the state of including or comprising something; comprehensiveness
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education an exercise consisting of a previously unseen passage of text with related questions, designed to test a student's understanding esp of a foreign language
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obsolete logic the attributes implied by a given concept or term; connotation
Other Word Forms
- miscomprehension noun
- noncomprehension noun
- precomprehension noun
- supercomprehension noun
- uncomprehension noun
Etymology
Origin of comprehension
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin comprehēnsiōn-, stem of comprehēnsiō, from comprehēns(us) “understood” (past participle of comprehendere “to understand,” literally, “to seize together”; comprehend ) + -iō -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She claimed that she was mistakenly under the impression that her case would then be sent to appeal and noted that she has the documented verbal comprehension of a second-grader.
From Los Angeles Times
These are things that are beyond our mortal comprehension, but that are maybe coming in the near-future.
From Los Angeles Times
The government first announced its plans for a statutory Year 8 reading assessment in schools, to assess fluency and comprehension, in autumn 2025.
From BBC
This allows events to balloon beyond our comprehension, and may be preventing us from stopping this insanity.
From Salon
This creates a gap between adviser compliance and a client’s comprehension of all the moving parts.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
