Comprehension

How to spell comprehension

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce comprehension

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does comprehension mean?

1. nounThe action or capacity of understanding something fully.

Comprehension in a sentence

• The legal jargon was beyond his comprehension.

• Reading the report aloud improved her comprehension of the figures.

Where does comprehension come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin comprehensio, a noun built on the verb comprehendere, meaning 'to seize' or 'to grasp', formed from the prefix com- 'together' and prehendere 'to take hold of'. The original sense was very physical: to take something firmly in hand, to grab it all at once. From that literal grip the meaning shifted to a mental one, namely the act of grasping an idea with the mind, which is exactly the modern English sense of understanding. English borrowed the word through Old French in the late 1400s, keeping the Latin spelling closely intact. The same prehendere root sits inside its cousins 'apprehend' and 'reprehensible', and noticing the buried 'prehend' is the surest way to remember that comprehension has an h before the e and ends in -sion rather than -tion.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• prehend (to grasp, seize)
• -sion (noun-forming suffix)