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.
This allows events to balloon beyond our comprehension, and may be preventing us from stopping this insanity.
From Salon • Mar. 25, 2026
But the hurtling pace of the cast, combined with some misguided blocking that has characters speaking at points with their backs to the audience, makes comprehension more difficult than necessary.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2026
It’s almost beyond comprehension that Americans have reached the point where we need to be reminded not to attack physicians or medical staff.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 23, 2026
"It measures students' reading comprehension and whether they can handle the level of material they'll encounter in university," says Kim Soo-yeon, an English literature professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
From BBC • Dec. 11, 2025
Whatever they are watching has to be complex enough to allow, upon repeated exposure, for deeper and deeper levels of comprehension.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
