Sample sentences for COMPREHEND

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Definition

to understand something — especially to understand it completely

Much more rarely (and more frequently in the past), comprehend can mean to include as part of something broader. That was the first sense of the word listed in Webster's Dictionary of 1828 with this sample sentence: "The empire of Great Britain comprehends England, Scotland and Ireland, with their dependencies."

I don't think she comprehends how dangerous this has become.

comprehends = fully understands

Washington fails to comprehend the change in China's strategy.

comprehend = fully understand

Do you comprehend the meaning of the statement?

comprehend = understand

Perhaps, if you explained yourself a little more fully, I should comprehend better.
Charlotte Bronte -- Jane Eyre
One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.
Albert Einstein
Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand of it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- The Brothers Karamazov
We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications... In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
Dwight D Eisenhower
Man does not comprehend its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living.
Job 28:13 (NIV)
For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Romans 13:9 (KJV)
It may indeed prove to be far the most difficult and not the least important task for human reason rationally to comprehend its own limitations. It is essential for the growth of reason that as individuals we should bow to forces and obey principles which we cannot hope fully to understand, yet on which the advance and even the preservation of civilization depends. Historically this has been achieved by the influence of the various religious creeds and by traditions and superstitions which made man submit to those forces by an appeal to his emotions rather than to his reason. The most dangerous stage in the growth of civilization may well be that in which man has come to regard all these beliefs as superstitions and refuses to accept or to submit to anything which he does not rationally understand.
Friedrich A. Hayek
It took a moment for Stanley to comprehend.
Louis Sachar -- Holes

comprehend = understand

T.J., for the first time comprehending that we were no longer his friends, stopped.
Mildred D. Taylor -- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

comprehending = understanding

They have worries, aims, desires, that I cannot comprehend.
Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front

comprehend = understand

He was incomprehensible.
John Knowles -- A Separate Peace

incomprehensible = not understandable

(Editor's note: The prefix "in-" in incomprehensible means not and reverses the meaning of comprehensible. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.)

He began to talk a lot of incomprehensible and dangerous nonsense.
Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World

incomprehensible = not understandable

"But you will be faced, now," she explained gently, "with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience."
Lois Lowry -- The Giver

comprehend = understand

For her part, Winnie, now that the running was over, began to comprehend what was happening,
Natalie Babbitt -- Tuck Everlasting

comprehend = understand

How so reasonable a creature could live in peril of everlasting torment was incomprehensible.
Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

incomprehensible = not understandable

The mayor's voice kept coming in blasts of incomprehensible sound, and the people in the crowd were either shouting angrily or yelping in fear of being squashed.
Jeanne DuPrau -- The City of Ember

incomprehensible = not understandable

...I tried, hard, to comprehend everything that had just happened.
Sarah Dessen -- The Truth About Forever

comprehend = understand completely

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

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