- understanding
-
—understandingly, adv./un'deuhr stan"ding/, n.1. mental process of a person who comprehends; comprehension; personal interpretation: My understanding of the word does not agree with yours.2. intellectual faculties; intelligence; mind: a quick understanding.3. superior power of discernment; enlightened intelligence: With her keen understanding she should have become a leader.4. knowledge of or familiarity with a particular thing; skill in dealing with or handling something: an understanding of accounting practice.5. a state of cooperative or mutually tolerant relations between people: To him, understanding and goodwill were the supreme virtues.6. a mutual agreement, esp. of a private, unannounced, or tacit kind: They had an understanding about who would do the dishes.7. an agreement regulating joint activity or settling differences, often informal or preliminary in character: After hours of negotiation, no understanding on a new contract was reached.8. Philos.a. the power of abstract thought; logical power.b. Kantianism. the mental faculty resolving the sensory manifold into the transcendental unity of apperception.adj.9. characterized by understanding; prompted by, based on, or demonstrating comprehension, intelligence, discernment, empathy, or the like: an understanding attitude.[bef. 1050; ME understandynge, late OE understandincge (n.). See UNDERSTAND, -ING1, -ING2]
* * *
Universalium. 2010.