Definition of the word believe

Princeton’s WordNetRate this definition:3.7 / 9 votes

1. believeverb

   accept as true; take to be true

   «I believed his report»; «We didn’t believe his stories from the War»; «She believes in spirits»

2. think, believe, consider, conceiveverb

   judge or regard; look upon; judge

   «I think he is very smart»; «I believe her to be very smart»; «I think that he is her boyfriend»; «The racist conceives such people to be inferior»

3. believe, trustverb

   be confident about something

   «I believe that he will come back from the war»

4. believeverb

   follow a credo; have a faith; be a believer

   «When you hear his sermons, you will be able to believe, too»

5. believeverb

   credit with veracity

   «You cannot believe this man»; «Should we believe a publication like the National Enquirer?»

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. believeverb

   To think something is true without having proof or empirical evidence.

2. believeverb

   To accept that someone is telling the truth.

   Why did I ever believe you?

3. believeverb

   To accept as true.

   If you believe the numbers, you’ll agree we need change.

4. believeverb

   To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.

   After that night in the church, I believed.

5. believeverb

   To consider likely.

   I believe it might rain tomorrow.(This definition is the same as «to accept as true», but for a likely event «might rain tomorrow»).

6. Etymology: From beleven, bileven, from beliefan, from bilaubijanan, equivalent to. Cognate with beleve. Compare geliefan, geleafa, leof. Related also to leauwjen, leauwe, geloven, glauben,.

Samuel Johnson’s DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. To BELIEVEverb

   Etymology: gelyfan, Saxon.

   1. To credit upon the authority of another, or from some other reason than our personal knowledge.

   A proposition, which they are persuaded, but do not know to be true, it is not seeing, but believing.
   John Locke.

   Ten thousand things there are, which we believe merely upon the authority or credit of those who have spoken or written of them.
   Isaac Watts, Logick.

   2. To put confidence in the veracity of any one.

   The people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever.
   Exodus, xix. 9.

2. To Believeverb

   1. To have a firm persuasion of any thing.

   They may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
   Genesis, xlv.

   2. To exercise the theological virtue of faith.

   Now God be prais’d, that, to believing souls,
   Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.
   William Shakespeare, H. VI.

   For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
   Romans, x. 10.

   3. With the particle in; to hold as an object of faith.

   Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established.
   2 Chron. xx. 20.

   4. With the particle upon; to trust; to place full confidence in; to rest upon with faith.

   To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
   John, i. 12.

   5. I believe, is sometimes used as a way of slightly noting some want of certainty or exactness.

   Though they are, I believe, as high as most steeples in England, yet a person, in his drink, fell down, without any other hurt than the breaking of an arm.
   Joseph Addison, on Italy.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Believenoun

   to exercise belief in; to credit upon the authority or testimony of another; to be persuaded of the truth of, upon evidence furnished by reasons, arguments, and deductions of the mind, or by circumstances other than personal knowledge; to regard or accept as true; to place confidence in; to think; to consider; as, to believe a person, a statement, or a doctrine

2. Believeverb

   to have a firm persuasion, esp. of the truths of religion; to have a persuasion approaching to certainty; to exercise belief or faith

3. Believeverb

   to think; to suppose

FreebaseRate this definition:4.0 / 1 vote

1. Believe

   «Believe» is a song by American recording artist Cher. It was released on October 19, 1998 as the lead single from her twenty-third studio album of the same name. It was written by Brian Higgins, Stuart McLennen, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Matthew Gray, and Timothy Powell and produced by Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling. It has since become one of the best-selling singles of all time, having sold 11 million copies worldwide. It won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 42nd Grammy Awards and also received a nomination for Record of the Year. It was also voted as the world’s eighth favourite song in a poll released by BBC.
   Musically, «Believe» is a dance-pop song that incorporates elements of techno, Eurodance and house music. It also uses heavy amounts of Auto-Tune, which has since become one of the song’s most notable features. The song has received positive reviews from music critics, with some calling the song «catchy» and the «best thing Cher has recorded in years». It topped the charts in more than ten countries worldwide, becoming one of the most commercially successful singles to date. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA, selling more than 1 million in the United States.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Believe

   be-lēv′, v.t. to regard as true: to trust in.—v.i. to be firmly persuaded of anything: to exercise faith (with in, on): to think or suppose.—n. Belief′, persuasion of the truth of anything: faith: the opinion or doctrine believed: intuition, natural judgment (as used by some philosophers).—adjs. Belief′less; Believ′able, that may be believed.—n. Believ′er, one who believes: a professor of Christianity.—p.adj. Believ′ing, trustful.—adv. Believ′ingly.—The Belief (arch.), the Apostles’ Creed.—To make believe, to pretend. [M. E. bileven—bi-, be-, and leven. Murray says that believe is an erroneous spelling of the 17th century, prob. after relieve. The A.S. form geléfan survived to the 14th century; the present compound, which superseded it, appears in the 12th century.]

Editors ContributionRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. believe

   To accept as a facet of our knowing.

   We can believe in something and with education or intuition and thinking through with logic we can then change what we believe.

   Submitted by MaryC on January 19, 2020  

2. ---

   believe

   To act and be confident and know what we focus on we create in order of priority, the universes truth and the collective plan for the evolution of humanity.

   They did believe that they could both together arrange their wedding within three months with moderate effort and simplicity.

   Submitted by MaryC on January 19, 2020  

Matched Categories

1. • Accept
   • Believe
   • Credit
   • Expect
   • Judge
   • Religion

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘believe’ in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #465

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘believe’ in Written Corpus Frequency: #367

3. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘believe’ in Verbs Frequency: #58

How to pronounce believe?

How to say believe in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of believe in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of believe in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of believe in a Sentence

1. Bremerton High School:

   Lord, I thank you for these kids and the blessing you’ve given me with them. We believe in the game, we believe in competition and we can come into it as rivals and leave as brothers. the district is in no way taking away an athletic coach’s freedom of expression.

2. Mark Biros:

   Given the pressure under which health care providers are working, I do not see any reasonable likelihood that such charges would be filed in connection with negligence in providing care, that is not because I believe that there may not be negligence that leads to death.It is just that prosecuting a health caregiver for failing to meet a reasonable standard of care in an environment where, according to public accounts, health care providers are operating under severe [ shortages of ] equipment, and personnel shortages would be difficult.

3. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez:

   So we believe that Honduras should also become a safe country to avoid the situation becoming more complicated.

4. David Nathanson:

   It’s important for us to be at the forefront of how sports fans are consuming content well into the future. I think virtual reality represents that, we believe what NextVR is doing in live sports is best in class.

5. Nina Taylor:

   They believe that will motivate them to work out or diet, however, what that can lead to is body dissatisfaction — social comparison and a lot of concerns about body and weight. Those are all risk factors for eating disorder development.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

• gloAfrikaans
• creyerAragonese
• كيامن, اعتقد, آمن, يؤمن, ظن, يعتقدArabic
• inanmaqAzerbaijani
• паверыць, ве́рыцьBelarusian
• вя́рвам, мисля, вярвам, смятамBulgarian
• creureCatalan, Valencian
• věřit, mysletCzech
• creduWelsh
• tro, meneDanish
• glaubenGerman
• πιστεύωGreek
• fidi, kredi, kredi jeEsperanto
• creer, tener feSpanish
• uskumaEstonian
• باور کردن, ایمان داشتنPersian
• uskoaFinnish
• trúgvaFaroese
• croire, croyezFrench
• liuweWestern Frisian
• creidIrish
• smaoinich, saoilScottish Gaelic
• crerGalician
• माननाHindi
• hiszHungarian
• հավատալArmenian
• percayaIndonesian
• kredarIdo
• credereItalian
• מאמיןHebrew
• 信じる, 信じますJapanese
• დაჯერებაGeorgian
• сенуKazakh
• ជឿKhmer
• ನಂಬಿರಿKannada
• 믿다, 생각하다Korean
• ишенүүKyrgyz
• crēdōLatin
• gleewenLuxembourgish, Letzeburgesch
• ເຊື່ອLao
• tikėtiLithuanian
• ticētLatvian
• ве́руваMacedonian
• итгэхMongolian
• percayaMalay
• ယုံBurmese
• geloven, geloven in, denkenDutch
• tro, trorNorwegian
• oodlą́Navajo, Navaho
• creire, créser, créderOccitan
• przypuszczać, wierzyć, sądzićPolish
• achar, acreditar, crer, confiarPortuguese
• iñiyQuechua
• creir, crajer, crair, crerRomansh
• credeRomanian
• пове́рить, ду́мать, ве́рить, счита́ть, полага́ть, веритьRussian
• crei, crèere, crere, crèdere, crèiriSardinian
• vjerovati, verovati, вјеровати, вероватиSerbo-Croatian
• veriťSlovak
• verjeti, verovatiSlovene
• besojAlbanian
• tro, förmoda, antaSwedish
• бовар карданTajik
• เชื่อThai
• ynanmakTurkmen
• inanmakTurkish
• инаныргаTatar
• ві́рити, ВіртеUkrainian
• مانناUrdu
• ishonmoqUzbek
• tin, tin tưởngVietnamese
• croereWalloon
• גלייבןYiddish
• 相信Chinese

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