comprehension

American  

[kom-pri-hen-shuhn] / ˌkɒm prɪˈhɛn ʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of comprehending.

2. the state of being comprehended.

3. perception or understanding.

   His comprehension of physics is amazing for a young student.

4. capacity of the mind to perceive and understand; power to grasp ideas; ability to know.

5. Logic. the connotation of a term.

6. inclusion.

7. comprehensiveness.

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comprehension British  

/ ˌkɒmprɪˈhɛnʃən /

noun

1. the act or capacity of understanding

2. the state of including or comprising something; comprehensiveness

3. 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

4. obsolete logic the attributes implied by a given concept or term; connotation

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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”; see comprehend) + -iō -ion

Explanation

The word comprehension means understanding. When you lack comprehension of a difficult word, you will likely need to look up its definition and usage in a cool, down-to-earth online dictionary! Comprehension actually comes from the Latin term, comprehensionem, which means "a seizing." When you have comprehension of a subject, you have seized information and incorporated it into your own knowledge. Any kind of mental grasping of an idea or a subject is a kind of comprehension. You might attempt comprehension of a curious situation, like the fact that your goofy roommate always manages to date models. Sometimes, such mysteries are beyond comprehension!

Example Sentences

Although Centaur was presented as a model capable of simulating cognition, its biggest limitation appears to be in language comprehension.

From Science Daily • Apr. 30, 2026

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 • Mar. 31, 2026

This allows events to balloon beyond our comprehension, and may be preventing us from stopping this insanity.

From Salon • Mar. 25, 2026

This creates a gap between adviser compliance and a client’s comprehension of all the moving parts.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 24, 2026

But it was just the two of us, me smiling brazenly while inside I quaked in terror, and him, flustered beyond comprehension.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

Related Words

• apprehension
• awareness