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
Derived Forms
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!
Vocabulary lists containing comprehension
TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Tongues Untied: The Lingo of Linguistics
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Edge: Academic Vocabulary
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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.
"Comprehension strategy instruction helps students make connections, ask questions, visualize, synthesize and monitor their thinking about word problems," Orosco and Reed wrote.
From Science Daily • Apr. 29, 2024
Comprehension will have to wait but coping cannot be postponed.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 18, 2023
It was possible to test ChatGPT because five of the subtests on the Verbal IQ scale—Vocabulary, Similarities, Comprehension, Information and Arithmetic—can be presented in written form.
From Scientific American • Mar. 28, 2023
Comprehension means being proactive as a reader: looking up words you do not know, taking meaningful notes, asking questions, understanding the rhetorical situation of the text, and so on.
From Textbooks • Dec. 21, 2021
“Stunned? By you lot, you mean? But why — ?” Comprehension dawned suddenly on Bagman’s round, shiny face; he looked up at the skull, down at Winky, and then at Mr. Crouch.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
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.
