Both Uses
comprehend
in
She Said Yes
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- The reality that our son shared in the responsibility for this tragedy is still incredibly difficult for us to comprehend.†
p. 149.6comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- For another, having lost a child ourselves in the same incomprehensible disaster, we can only share their anguish.†
p. 150.1 *incomprehensible = not understandablestandard prefix: 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.
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."