comprehending

verb

present participle of comprehend
1
as in understanding
to have a clear idea of the age at which children can comprehend the difference between right and wrong

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in knowing
to have a practical understanding of it took me a while to comprehend algebra

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in including
to have as part of a whole our notion of morality should comprehend much more than proper sexual behavior

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 comprehending Infinite Jasons • MacNamara is so far from comprehending the box that his Jason looked utterly bored by his questions. — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026 Understanding that this is policy is crucial for comprehending how Israeli soldiers are expected to dutifully erase entire villages without questioning orders. — Jay Weissberg, Variety, 10 Sep. 2026 By utilizing three classes of agents, Microsoft is effectively comprehending the entire threat lifecycle. — Will Townsend, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2026 Without comprehending what was happening, Kikuko looked up at the sagging skin of her father’s throat. — Cynthia Zarin, Harpers Magazine, 4 Aug. 2026 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 And only by comprehending the Star Eaters will Ro also comprehend his part in their potential destruction. — Literary Hub, 2 Jan. 2026 And then just comprehending the infrastructure required, again, just for the eggs, let alone all the other things required. — Nathan Diller, USA Today, 18 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for comprehending
  1. understanding
  2. knowing
  3. including
  4. deciphering
  5. involving
  6. recognizing
  7. encompassing
  8. grasping
Verb
  • The model provides a baseline for understanding what a planet’s atmosphere might look like without life.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2026
  • The key is understanding your audience’s habits, wants and needs, then communicating with them in the right places.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of understanding
Verb
  • Reliability includes knowing when an arrangement needs to change.
    — Tarot.com, The Orlando Sentinel, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Our community is dying; there’s an underlying sense of desperation, grief and pride that can both protect and suffocate out of a need to survive – this film is ultimately a love letter to us, with a sense of knowing.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of knowing
Verb
  • Residents reported experiencing the tremor in several cities, including Arcata, Garberville, McKinleyville and Whitethorn according to the USGS DYFI report.
    — CA Earthquake Bot, Sacbee.com, 5 Nov. 2026
  • She was recognized for her humanitarian support, including human rights and charitable activities aimed at helping Ukrainian children, according to the presidential website.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of including
Verb
  • Bahdanau was working with artificial neural networks, which had already shown promise in pattern-recognition tasks such as deciphering handwriting and identifying objects in photos.
    — Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 12 Oct. 2026
  • In addition to developing better medicines or perfumes, deciphering the mirror images of molecules can help scientists understand the chemical architecture of life, said chemist Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the journal Science.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of deciphering
Verb
  • The inspector general flagged more than $76,000 in travel involving out-of-state key personnel.
    — Julie Watts, CBS News, 5 Nov. 2026
  • Thea Energy has previously announced a collaboration involving NVIDIA, Synopsys, Argonne National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to develop a digital twin of its Helios power plant.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of involving
Verb
  • Dmitriev presented her with a painting from an 11-year-old girl while Zelensky sent her a Ukrainian award recognizing her role in securing the ceasefire.
    — Darlene Superville, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2026
  • Established in 1969, the Songwriters Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the lives and legacies of the songwriters behind the world’s most enduring songs.
    — Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of recognizing
Verb
  • As of last week, the NCAA reported some 200 lawsuits filed since its approval of the new eligibility model in June, encompassing roughly 850 plaintiffs in a variety of sports.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 Nov. 2026
  • The study’s authors stopped short of claiming the coinciding diversification of Cretaceous plants and oviraptorosaurs (the larger dinosaur group encompassing caenagnathidae) are directly related.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 28 Oct. 2026
Definition of encompassing
Verb
  • Keeping desire alive means choosing pursuits that can never be finished – a craft, a field of study, a relationship – and letting the gap between reaching and grasping stay open.
    — Stacy Keltner, The Conversation, 30 Oct. 2026
  • The closest the Kardashian sisters have come to grasping the point is a discussion about society’s beauty standards in season three of The Kardashians, when Kylie Jenner brought the topic up to Khloé Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian.
    — Elizabeth Gulino, Allure, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of grasping

Browse Nearby Words

comprehendible
comprehending
comprehends
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Cite this Entry

“Comprehending.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/comprehending. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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