Comprehend
verbTo grasp or fully understand the meaning of something.
How to spell comprehend
10 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce comprehend
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does comprehend mean?
- verbTo grasp or fully understand the meaning of something.
Comprehend in a sentence
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New staff sometimes struggle to comprehend the company's complex pension rules.
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It took me several readings to comprehend the dense legal contract.
Where does comprehend come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word comes from the Latin comprehendere, which literally meant 'to seize' or 'to grasp completely', built from the intensifying prefix com- 'together, fully' and prehendere 'to seize or take hold of'. The Romans used it both physically, for grabbing or surrounding something, and figuratively, for taking an idea firmly into the mind. English borrowed it in the 1300s, partly through Old French, and kept mainly the mental sense of grasping a meaning. The same prehendere root sits inside several familiar relatives, including 'apprehend' (to seize, or to grasp with anxiety) and 'prehensile' (able to grip), so the shared idea of taking hold runs through them all. Knowing that the core is prehend, not 'prehent' or 'prehent', helps fix the spelling of that tricky middle.
How the word is built
- com- (together, fully)
- prehend (to seize, grasp)
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