uncomprehending
Britishadjective
Explanation
Someone who's uncomprehending doesn't really understand what's going on. If you try to ask directions in English during your trip to Bulgaria, your words might be met with an uncomprehending expression. When you comprehend something, you understand it. So by transforming comprehend into an adjective and adding the prefix un-, or "not," we get a word that means "not understanding." When your teacher asks you a question and you don't respond, she may not be able to tell if you're uncomprehending or just not paying attention.
Vocabulary lists containing uncomprehending
Unit 7: Vocabulary from Readings
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Vocabulary from Readings 2, Unit 4
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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.
His Gogo gives a blank, uncomprehending thousand-yard stare into the void that has an unsettling power.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 29, 2025
He was wearing his mug-shot face, but the eyes were uncomprehending.
From Salon • Sep. 21, 2023
He looked, uncomprehending, from me to Harry and back again.
From Slate • May 27, 2023
Ms. Ginsburg started from the premise that she needed to provide some basic education for an audience that was not so much hostile as uncomprehending.
From New York Times • Sep. 18, 2020
She spoke, first in the fast and lilting language they had heard across the city and then, seeing their uncomprehending faces, in English.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
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.
