belief
noun
Simple meaning
Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bihleefSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
bɪˈlif
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
Faith or trust in the reality of something; often based upon one's own reasoning, trust in a claim, desire of actuality, and/or evidence considered.
uncountable
The quality or state of believing.
uncountable
Religious faith.
in the plural
One's religious or moral convictions.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
Used this way, belief is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use belief
- “It is my firm belief that we can achieve this goal.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning.
An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary.
A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny.
An unshakable belief in something without need for proof or evidence.
A misconception resulting from incorrect information.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.