| Library / English Dictionary |
COMPREHENSION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An ability to understand the meaning or importance of something (or the knowledge acquired as a result)
Example:
he was famous for his comprehension of American literature
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("comprehension" is a kind of...):
apprehension; discernment; savvy; understanding (the cognitive condition of someone who understands)
Antonym:
incomprehension (an inability to understand)
Derivation:
comprehend (get the meaning of something)
comprehend (to become aware of through the senses)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The relation of comprising something
Example:
he admired the inclusion of so many ideas in such a short work
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
Hypernyms ("comprehension" is a kind of...):
involvement (a connection of inclusion or containment)
Derivation:
comprehend (include in scope; include as part of something broader; have as one's sphere or territory)
Context examples:
The portion of the brain located in the parietal lobe that plays a role in intersensory processing, language comprehension, and cognition.
(Angular Gyrus, NCI Thesaurus)
Oral and silent reading difficulties can include faulty and slow comprehension.
(Dyslexia, NCI Thesaurus)
“No,” said Mr. Knightley, nearly at the same time; “you are not often deficient; not often deficient either in manner or comprehension. I think you understand me, therefore.”
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
An aphasia characterized by impairment of expressive language (speech, writing, signs) and relative preservation of receptive language abilities (i.e., comprehension).
(Broca's Aphasia, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
Also, a range of cognitive tests were performed related to short-term memory, verbal comprehension and knowledge, psychomotor speed, visual processing, long-term storage and retrieval, and cognitive processing speed.
(Brain benefits of aerobic exercise lost to mercury exposure, NIH)
In the future, the understanding of this interaction between two brains would allow for the comprehension and analysis of very complex aspects of the fields of psychology, sociology, psychiatry, or education, using the neural images within an ecological or real-world context.
(Our Brains Synchronize during A Conversation, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
That Hal’s views on art, or the sort of society plays his mother’s brother wrote, should have anything to do with the chopping of a few sticks of firewood, passes comprehension; nevertheless the quarrel was as likely to tend in that direction as in the direction of Charles’s political prejudices.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Popular lectures are the easiest to listen to, but Mr. Waldron (here he beamed and blinked at the lecturer) will excuse me when I say that they are necessarily both superficial and misleading, since they have to be graded to the comprehension of an ignorant audience. (Ironical cheering.)
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She read with an eagerness which hardly left her power of comprehension, and from impatience of knowing what the next sentence might bring, was incapable of attending to the sense of the one before her eyes.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The conversations were miles beyond Jo's comprehension, but she enjoyed it, though Kant and Hegel were unknown gods, the Subjective and Objective unintelligible terms, and the only thing 'evolved from her inner consciousness' was a bad headache after it was all over.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
