comprehension

American  

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

noun

comprehensions plural

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

Derived Forms

• miscomprehension
  noun
• noncomprehension
  noun
• precomprehension
  noun
• supercomprehension
  noun
• uncomprehension
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• comprehensions
  plural

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

See Examples For:

comprehension comprehensions

The findings suggest that important cognitive abilities, including language comprehension and prediction, may not depend on conscious awareness.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 29, 2026

Petry’s coiled, claustrophobic story of a well-meaning heroine trapped in a system beyond her comprehension or control rises to a pitch of tragedy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Al-Hashimi became a polyglot — speaking English, Farsi and Armenian — in part to curb the effects of a seizure disorder on her temporal lobe, which is crucial for language comprehension.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026

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 ● Mar. 30, 2026

The snowflakes sparkled and shimmered beyond the glass panes of the window, twirling and weaving as they flew to the ground in a waltz that was beyond human comprehension.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

He may also be rushing through the text and not monitoring his own comprehensions.

From Slate ● Jan. 7, 2021

Reed and Wooten will be tasked with improving hitters’ comprehensions of technology-driven approaches and overseeing new catcher Jonathan Lucroy’s resurgence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2019

I envy frightfully the simple folk, the altogether simple folk, remote from these cheerless comprehensions of the intellect.

From The Created Legend by Cournos, John

I had glimpses and intimations of the baffling essence of our human lives here, strange, fleeting comprehensions of the eternal wonder and the eternal beauty….

From Sacred and Profane Love by Bennett, Arnold

They tell of men and of peoples who had to face facts and who achieved comprehensions and convictions through grappling with facts.

From Understanding the Scriptures by McConnell, Francis John

Related Words

• apprehension
• awareness