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understand

Pronunciation: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/

The English word “understand” has 9 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To know the meaning of; to parse or have parsed correctly; to comprehend.
  2. To know the meaning of.
  3. To be thoroughly familiar with; to be able to undertake properly.
  4. To comprehend a fact or principle; to regard or come to regard a belief as such.
  5. To know the intent, motives or character of; (of events) to know the causes of or reasons for.
  6. To believe or infer, to think one grasps sufficiently despite potentially incomplete knowledge.
  7. To regard as present when not.
  8. To stand underneath, to support.

interjection

  1. Uh-huh, I see; a way to acknowledge something said by the other speaker.

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,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.