Definition of comprehension
1a
: the act or action of grasping with the intellect : understanding
children who have difficulty with comprehension of spoken language What the artist actually needs is comprehension of his aims and ideals by men he respects …— H. L. Mencken
b
: knowledge gained by comprehending
tests that measure the students' comprehension in math She carried on with full comprehension of the risk involved.
c
: the capacity for understanding fully
mysteries that are beyond our comprehension The war caused suffering beyond comprehension.
2a
: the act or process of comprising
the comprehension of all the denominations into one Church
b
: the faculty or capability of including : comprehensiveness
the broad comprehension of the word "animal"
Test Your Vocabulary
Which Word Does Not Belong?
-
- Which of these words does not mean "nonsense"?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
TAKE THE QUIZ
A daily challenge for crossword fanatics.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share comprehension
Time Traveler for comprehension
The first known use of comprehension was in the 15th century
See more words from the same century