APPREHENDS Synonyms: 99 Similar and Opposite Words

apprehends

verb

present tense third-person singular of apprehend

as in knows

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

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in arrests

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

Example Sentences

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 apprehends John Early, as anyone encountering his work soon apprehends, chooses the latter. — Lauren Michele Jackson, New Yorker, 7 June 2026 Though the team immediately apprehends a suspect, the Marshals end up taking criticism from both sides. — Saman Shafiq, USA Today, 21 Mar. 2026 Neighbors are now living in fear, looking on as ICE apprehends people of color across Minnesota. — Jason Rantala, CBS News, 19 Jan. 2026 The team successfully seizes two tons of gold and apprehends the leader of the criminal network. — Isabella Wandermurem, Time, 14 Jan. 2026 Suppose the number is read in one case out of a hundred, and that the information reaches someone who apprehends the culprit in one case out of one thousand. — Thomas Brewster, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for apprehends

Verb

Anyone who knows more was asked to contact LASD's Arson and Explosives Detail general line at 323-881-7500.

— Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 8 Nov. 2026
Anyone who works with multiple monitors knows the pain of having cables cluttered chaotically around their desk.

— Maryna Holovnova, New Atlas, 7 Nov. 2026

Definition of knows

Verb

Keith arrests our thinking, and cons us into suppressing our critical faculties with the same kind of internalized surveillance that philosopher Michel Foucault broke down to describe a prison’s use of the panopticon in Discipline and Punish.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 19 May 2026
Devlin throws a punch at Stone when the chief arrests him for drunken driving.

— Sandra Dallas, Denver Post, 19 Apr. 2026

Definition of arrests

Verb

But anyone who understands basic botany knows the math doesn’t add up, and this has become a deceptive annual pattern.

— Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 13 Nov. 2026
LLMs can also take advantage of proof verification software, such as Lean, a programming language that can logically codify and confirm a result is true (even if no one fully understands the underlying math).

— Dan Garisto, Scientific American, 12 Nov. 2026

Definition of understands

Verb

Now, her family must reckon with the consequences as Agnes van Rhijn seizes an opportunity to regain her position.

— Michael Schneider, Variety, 5 Nov. 2026
Sid is smart enough to sniff this out, and the show seizes the opportunity to raise the romantic stakes through an adorably British expression of mutual libidinousness.

— Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of seizes

Verb

The Midwest Regional Reception Center detains close to 500 fathers, mothers, spouses, cousins and friends on behalf of ICE.

— Eleanor Nash, Kansas City Star, 18 Aug. 2026
The policy guidance applies to agents under Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch of ICE that detains and ultimately deports undocumented immigrants.

— Philip Wang, Time, 14 July 2026

Definition of detains

Verb

In an oppositional reading of a media text, the audience comprehends that the message conflicts with or contradicts their personal experiences of society.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 May 2026
In the end, A Guardian and a Thief is a story that comprehends hunger more deeply than the world that produces it.

— Tope Folarin, The Atlantic, 8 Nov. 2025

Definition of comprehends

Verb

Lithium grabs the spotlight, but cheap and abundant sodium has long held the key to large-scale energy storage.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2026
Testing spoons stored in a manner where lip contact surface contamination could happen when employee grabs the spoon from container.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 2 Nov. 2026

Definition of grabs

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apprehending

apprehends

apprehensible

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“Apprehends.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apprehends. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of apprehends

verb

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