APPREHENDING Synonyms: 100 Similar and Opposite Words

apprehending

verb

present participle of apprehend

as in knowing

to have a clear idea of do you apprehend the importance of this discovery?

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in arresting

to take or keep under one's control by authority of law the agency charged with apprehending criminals who have violated federal law

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of apprehending Police posted video of the raid on social media, showing officers collecting evidence at the scene and apprehending the suspect. — CBS News, 13 June 2026 The Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office, United States Marshals Service and New Mexico State Police assisted in apprehending Jones, Hann said. — Caroline Zimmerman may 28, Kansas City Star, 28 May 2026 Federal immigration agents fanned across the city, apprehending workers at car washes, garment businesses, Home Depots and other locations. — Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2026 This arc is advancing slower than a glacier on Hoth, and Mando apprehending a couple of mid-level Imps on the big screen doesn't really fill the gap. — Richard Edwards, Space.com, 25 May 2026 In the video shared exclusively with Fox News by ICE, officers are seen apprehending and arresting the Honduran national. — Sarah Rumpf-Whitten , Danamarie McNicholl, FOXNews.com, 9 May 2026 The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 compelled authorities in northern free states to assist in apprehending and returning those who escaped back to slavery. — Jeremy Mennis, The Conversation, 1 May 2026 Los Angeles ran from 2009 to 2023, centered around the high-stakes world of a division of NCIS that is charged with apprehending dangerous and elusive criminals, who pose a threat to the nation’s security. — Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 15 Apr. 2026 Putting them under military authority allowed troops to play an unprecedented role in apprehending undocumented immigrants; federal soldiers are generally barred from enforcing the law on domestic soil. — Agnel Philip, ProPublica, 2 Apr. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for apprehending

Verb

The challenge is no longer finding new avenues for growth, but knowing which ones to pursue without repeating the gradual dilution that weakened the brand before.

— Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 16 July 2026
The men who get real value out of knowing their T levels aren’t the ones chasing a higher number.

— Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt, CNN Money, 16 July 2026

Definition of knowing

Verb

After arresting the suspect, Rasiel Joel Carbuccia, 20, of Jamaica Plain, the two officers who were shot at were evaluated on the scene, to make sure they weren’t injured, then transported to a local hospital, police said.

— Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald, 16 July 2026
The two arresting officers testified they were never sequestered after Ramirez went unresponsive, a failure Brentwood’s police chief attributed to the weeklong delay between the arrest and Ramirez’s death.

— Hema Sivanandam, Mercury News, 15 July 2026

Definition of arresting

Verb

The aforementioned Löw and Scaloni worked as assistants before seizing the top jobs with their national teams, others – such as Didier Deschamps – have developed that know-how over multiple tournaments before striking gold.

— Chris Evans, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
Maduro disrupted her appearances by seizing sound systems or shutting down electricity.

— Stephania Taladrid, New Yorker, 20 July 2026

Definition of seizing

Verb

Photo courtesy of Easterseals For more than 40 years, the Media Access Awards has been one of the entertainment industry’s few dedicated platforms for recognizing disability representation on screen.

— Keely Cat-Wells, Forbes.com, 18 July 2026
Huntley says officially recognizing Iran as having control of the Strait of Hormuz could set a dangerous precedent because other countries could also claim important waterways.

— Jackie Northam, NPR, 17 July 2026

Definition of recognizing

Verb

The rapid-response unit within the Hellenic Police and the Athens Police Directorate immobilized and disarmed the suspect, detaining the individual on the scene, police said.

— Megan Fahrney, ABC News, 21 July 2026
Many of them despise Trump because of what ICE has done to their communities, which includes rounding up and detaining people who are here in the country legally, many of whom were born here.

— Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2026

Definition of detaining

Verb

Jonestown afflicted Naipaul’s vision, his way of deciphering not just political manias but the dreariness of urban life, the perpetual doom of the nuclear-arms race.

— Hua Hsu, New Yorker, 14 July 2026
In 2023, the Vesuvius Challenge made its first award for deciphering the first letters, and the following year, the project awarded the grand prize of $700,000 for producing the first readable text.

— ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 30 June 2026

Definition of deciphering

Verb

Hard sci-fi, meanwhile, leans into the fact that life evolving on other planets, under different conditions, and across different stretches of time will almost certainly take on forms so different from ours that comprehending them would be like imagining a new color.

— Tim Brinkhof, Big Think, 24 Mar. 2026
As for whether comprehending the wiring of the brain really demands techniques from the frontiers of theoretical physics, questions remain.

— Lee Billings, Scientific American, 13 Jan. 2026

Definition of comprehending

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“Apprehending.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apprehending. Accessed 23 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of apprehending

verb

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