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

And proving that great beauty knows no age, Olivia Colman made a glorious case for embracing the gray.

— Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 17 Oct. 2026
With a pending lockout, expiring player contracts and possible retirements, who knows what the future will hold.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 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

University of Miami president Joe Echevarria understands where the Atlantic Coast Conference stands in the grand scheme of college athletics.

— Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 22 Oct. 2026
The smiling, amiable android understands very little about her surroundings, believing that the sun (which recharges her batteries) is a deity that listens to her prayers to be chosen by a human.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of understands

Verb

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
That reporting revealed that the state frequently seizes money from legal settlements stemming from medical malpractice, police brutality, workplace injury and other wrongful death lawsuits.

— Ginny Monk, Hartford Courant, 28 Sep. 2026

Definition of seizes

Verb

Lee recognizes the potential for that in the servant and chooses not to do these things, or at least not do them in a domineering or self-serving way.

— Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 21 Oct. 2026
In addition to the recognition for the entire line, sophomore center Stewart Taufa was one of 40 players named to the Rimington Trophy Watchlist, an award that recognizes the nation’s top center.

— Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of recognizes

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

Nope, the Crimson Tide would most likely be on the outside looking in, while someone else from the SEC grabs their spot in the postseason.

— Trey Wallace OutKick, FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2026
The suspect runs inside, grabs rolls of lottery tickets, stuffs them into a bag and runs out.

— Tara Lynch, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of grabs

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apprehending

apprehends

apprehensible

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Style

“Apprehends.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apprehends. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of apprehends

verb

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