understand
noun
- understanding, knowledge
verb
- to comprehend, apprehend meaning or import of
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ / [ˌʌndəˈstænd] / /ˌʌndɚˈstænd/
intj
Etymology: From Middle English understanden, from Old English understandan (“to understand”), from Proto-West Germanic *understandan (“to stand between, understand”), from Proto-Germanic *understandaną (“to stand between, understand”), equivalent to Old English under- (“between, inter-”) + standan (“to stand”) (Modern English under- + stand). Cognate with Old Frisian understonda (“to understand, experience, learn”), Old High German understantan (“to understand”), Middle Danish understande (“to understand”). Compare also Saterland Frisian understunda, unnerstounde (“to dare, survey, measure”), Dutch onderstaan (“to undertake, presume”), German unterstehen (“to be subordinate”).
- Uh-huh, I see; a way to acknowledge something said by the other speaker.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English understanden, from Old English understandan (“to understand”), from Proto-West Germanic *understandan (“to stand between, understand”), from Proto-Germanic *understandaną (“to stand between, understand”), equivalent to Old English under- (“between, inter-”) + standan (“to stand”) (Modern English under- + stand). Cognate with Old Frisian understonda (“to understand, experience, learn”), Old High German understantan (“to understand”), Middle Danish understande (“to understand”). Compare also Saterland Frisian understunda, unnerstounde (“to dare, survey, measure”), Dutch onderstaan (“to undertake, presume”), German unterstehen (“to be subordinate”).
- To know the meaning of; to parse or have parsed correctly; to comprehend.
“Can you repeat what you just said? I didn't understand.”
“Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.”
- To know the meaning of; to parse or have parsed correctly; to comprehend.
“‘[…] I came back here, had a wank and finished that book.’ ‘The Naked Lunch?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘What did you reckon?’ ‘Crap.’ ‘You’re just saying that because you didn’t understand it,’ said Adrian. ‘I’m just saying that because I did understand it,’ said Tom. ‘Any road up, we’d better start making some toast.[…]’”
- To be thoroughly familiar with; to be able to undertake properly.
“The students understood the assignment.”
- To comprehend a fact or principle; to regard or come to regard a belief as such.
“I understand that company policy says I can't get a refund, but can you make an exception?”
“There's been no formal declaration, but it's understood that a state of war exists between the two countries”
- To know the intent, motives or character of; (of events) to know the causes of or reasons for.
“One day you say you love me, the next you ignore me—I don't understand you!”
- To believe or infer, to think one grasps sufficiently despite potentially incomplete knowledge.
“I've been given to understand that you have a package for me?”
“At least four people are understood to have been injured.”
- To regard as present when not.
“In the imperative mood, the word “you” is usually understood.”
“‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying.”
- To stand underneath, to support.
“LAUNE: Ay, and what I do too: look thee, I'll but lean, and my staff understands me. SPEED: It stands under thee, indeed. LAUNCE:Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one.”