faith

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noun

ˈfāth

plural faiths ˈfāths

sometimes ˈfāt͟hz

: allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty

lost faith in the company's president

b(1)

: fidelity to one's promises

(2)

: sincerity of intentions

acted in good faith

a(1)

: belief and trust in and loyalty to God

(2)

: belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion

b(1)

: firm belief in something for which there is no proof

clinging to the faith that her missing son would one day return

(2)

: complete trust

: something that is believed especially with strong conviction

especially : a system of religious beliefs

the Protestant faith

faith

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verb

ˈfāth

faithed; faithing; faiths

transitive verb

archaic

: believe, trust

Phrases

on faith

: without question

took everything he said on faith

Choose the Right Synonym for faith

belief, faith, credence, credit mean assent to the truth of something offered for acceptance.

belief may or may not imply certitude in the believer.

my belief that I had caught all the errors

faith almost always implies certitude even where there is no evidence or proof.

an unshakable faith in God

credence suggests intellectual assent without implying anything about grounds for assent.

a theory now given credence by scientists

credit may imply assent on grounds other than direct proof.

gave full credit to the statement of a reputable witness

Example Sentences

Noun Faith without doubt leads to moral arrogance, the eternal pratfall of the religiously convinced. —

Joe Klein, Time, 17 May 2004 Nick wiped at the moustache of sweat droplets that was as much a part of his face as his eyes and nose and gave a shrug that indicated a certain lack of faith in our judgment. —

Tom Perrotta, Joe College, 2000 But while no one with a grain of sense trusted Miss Stephanie, Jem and I had considerable faith in Miss Maudie. She had never told on us, had never played cat-and-mouse with us, she was not at all interested in our private lives. She was our friend. —

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960 His supporters have accepted his claims with blind faith. Our faith in the government has been badly shaken by the recent scandals. Lending him the money to start his own business was an act of faith. It requires a giant leap of faith for us to believe that she is telling the truth. Nothing is more important to her than her faith in God. She says that her faith has given her the courage to deal with this tragedy. See More

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Below are some of her thoughts on the faith, in her own words, pulled from her 2012 autobiography and from interviews over the years. —

Los Angeles Times, 6 Dec. 2022 In this rural village, poverty is common but people still rely on faith to protect them from theft and other crimes. —

Alexandra Meeks, CNN, 18 Nov. 2022 Based on his faith in the law, Bessa Antunes seems genuinely optimistic about Lula’s chances for protecting Amazon forests. —

Richard Schiffman, Scientific American, 9 Nov. 2022 But this has been like, for me at least, the last two years of just stepping out on faith and living in my truth. —

al, 7 Nov. 2022 The two years since the last federal elections have seen unrelenting attacks on the public’s faith in the integrity and security of election administration. —

Amy Gardner And Rosalind S. Helderman, Anchorage Daily News, 6 Nov. 2022 The two years since the last federal elections have seen unrelenting attacks on the public’s faith in the integrity and security of election administration. —

Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post, 6 Nov. 2022 His campaign soundtrack is heavy on country, his standard speech heavy on faith and family. —

Philip Elliott, Time, 3 Nov. 2022 A decade ago, that percentage was closer to 57% of the 185,149 then on the faith’s rolls. —

David Noyce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 2 Nov. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'faith.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English feith, fei, borrowed from Anglo-French feit, feid, fei, going back to Latin fidēs "trust, guarantee, proof, sincerity, loyalty, belief," going back to *bhid-ēi-, noun derivative from zero-grade of an Indo-European verbal base *b^hei̯d^h- "entrust, trust," whence Latin fīdere "to trust (in), have confidence (in)," fīdus "faithful," Greek peíthesthai "to obey, comply with, believe," peíthein "to persuade, prevail upon," Albanian be "oath," and probably Old Church Slavic běždǫ, běditi "to compel, constrain," běda "distress, need"

Note: The English word is an early loan from medieval French, first attested in a homily fragment from the 12th century (see feþ in Dictionary of Old English); it appears to preserve the final interdental fricative generally lost in early Old French—a loss reflected in the more common Anglo-French form fei (also loaned into Middle English—see fay entry 2). Indo-European *b^hei̯d^h- is also usually claimed to be the source of Germanic *bīðan- "to wait" (see bide).