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believe

verb
/bɪˈliːv/UK/bɪˈliv/US

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *laubō Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *laubijaną Proto-West Germanic *laubijan Proto-West Germanic *bilaubijan Old English belīefan Middle English bileven English believe From Middle English beleven, bileven, from Old English belīefan (“to believe”), from Proto-West Germanic *bilaubijan (“to believe”), equivalent to be- + leave (“to give leave or permission to, permit, allow, grant”). Cognate with Scots beleve (“to believe”), Old Frisian bilēva (“to permit”), Middle Dutch beloven (“to believe, entrust”), Middle Low German belö̂ven (“to believe”), Middle High German belouben (“to believe”). A related term in Old English was ġelīefan (“to be dear to; believe, trust”), from Proto-West Germanic *galaubijan (“to have faith, believe”), from Proto-Germanic *galaubijaną. Compare also Old English ġelēafa (“belief, faith, confidence, trust”), Old English lēof ("dear, valued, beloved, pleasant, agreeable" > English lief). Related also to North Frisian leauwjen (“to believe”), Saterland Frisian leeuwe (“to believe”), West Frisian leauwe (“to believe”), Dutch geloven (“to believe”), German Low German glöven (“to believe”), German glauben (“to believe”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌾𐌰𐌽 (galaubjan, “to hold dear, valuable, or satisfactory, approve of, believe”). The prepositionally transitive senses with in are a semantic loan from Latin crēdō in aliquem / aliquid.

  1. inherited from *bilaubijan✻ — “to believe”
  2. inherited from belīefan — “to believe”
  3. inherited from beleven

Definitions

  1. To accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing).

    • If you believe the numbers, you'll agree we need change.
    • I believe there are faeries.
    • FOꝛaſmuch as many haue taken in hande to ſet fooꝛth in oꝛder a declaration of thoſe things which are most ſurely beleeued among vs[…]

  2. To accept that someone is telling the truth.

    • Why did I ever believe you?
    • BEloued, beleeue not euery ſpirit, but trie the ſpirits, whether they are of God: becauſe many falſe prophets are gone out into the woꝛld.

  3. To have been persuaded to accept the factuality of something despite a lack of sufficient…

    To have been persuaded to accept the factuality of something despite a lack of sufficient evidence therefore.

  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. To have religious faith

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

      • After that night in the church, I believed.

    2. To opine, think, reckon.

      • Do you think this is good? —Hmm, I believe it's okay.
      • “Some people believe him charismatic,” Van Assen told me. “I am less sensitive to it.”
      • He believes that self-improvement and its growing popularity are symptoms of what he calls individualism.

    3. [with in]

      • Do you believe in God / the Easter Bunny / ghosts?
      • Since I don't believe in reincarnation, I believe that the only way to eliminate suffering is to die.

The neighborhood

  • antonymdisbelieve
  • antonymdoubtantonym(s) of “to accept as true without certainty”
  • antonymmistrustantonym(s) of “to accept someone's telling as true”
  • antonymdistrustantonym(s) of “to accept someone's telling as true”
  • antonymsuspectantonym(s) of “to accept someone's telling as true”
  • neighborbelief
  • neighbordisbelief

Derived

believability, believable, believe it or not, believe me, believe one's ears, believe one's eyes, believe one's own eyes, believer, believe you me, believing is seeing, believingly, be unable to believe one's eyes, disbelieve, do you believe in God, forebelieve, I'll believe it when I see it, make believe, make-believe, misbelieve, nonbelieving, rebelieve, seeing is believing, unbelievable, unbelieve, unbelieved, unbeliever, would you believe, would you believe it, you better believe it, you'd better believe it

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at believe. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01believe02absolute03mixture04elements05tenets06tenet07belief08believed

A definitional loop anchored at believe. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at believe

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA