All 5 Uses
comprehend
in
Alas, Babylon
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- So the H-bomb is beyond the imagination of all but a few Americans, while the British, Germans, and Japanese can comprehend it, if vaguely.†
Chpt Pref.comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- Comprehension seemed to come first to Elizabeth.†
Chpt 3 *comprehension = the understanding of something
- They looked confused and uncomprehending, dumb and ineffectual as cattle barred from the barn at nightfall.†
Chpt 5uncomprehending = not understandingstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uncomprehending means not and reverses the meaning of comprehending. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Standing on the other side of the room, Preacher Henry had been listening, but he did not fully understand the designation of contaminated zones or comprehend the implications.†
Chpt 7comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- I'm sure she never really comprehended what happened on The Day, or ever could.†
Chpt 7comprehended = understood completely
Definitions:
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(1)
(comprehend) to understand something -- especially to understand it completely
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(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) 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."