understanding

having or showing the capacity for sharing the feelings of another a kind and understanding teacher who often helps troubled students Synonyms commiserative, compassionate, empathetic, empathic, humane, sympatheticRelated Words feeling, perceptive, sensitive; considerate, gentle, softhearted, tender, tenderhearted, warm, warmhearted; benevolent, benignant, bighearted, charitable, kind, kindhearted, kindly, largehearted, magnanimous; clement, lenient, merciful, tolerant; pitying, ruthful; congenial, cordial, friendly, genial, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious, well-disposed; affectionate, lovingNear Antonyms inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless, unthinking; aloof, cool, indifferent, uncaring, uninterested; unaffectionate, unfriendly, unloving; merciless, pitiless, ruthless; bigoted, blinkered, narrow-minded, small-minded; brutal, grim, hard-bitten, hard-boiled, harsh, oppressive, rough, severe, stern, tough, ungentle, unrelenting; abusive, acrimonious, disagreeable, hateful, hostile, ill-natured, ill-tempered, malevolent, malicious, mean, rancorous, spiteful, surly, unkind, virulentAntonyms callous, cold-blooded, coldhearted, hard, hard-hearted, heartless, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, obdurate, unfeeling, unsympathetic

1 an arrangement about action to be taken the landlord came to an understanding with the tenants about his obligations for maintaining the property Synonyms accord, bargain, compact, contract, convention, covenant, deal, disposition, pact, settlement, agreementRelated Words charter, treaty; binder, pledge, promise; alliance, association, entente, entente cordiale, league, partnership; acceptance, approval, assent, concurrence, consent, OK (or okay)

2 the knowledge gained from the process of coming to know or understand something a social observer with a deep understanding of the problems that the nation's cities face in the 21st century Synonyms appreciation, apprehension, grasp, grip, hold, perception, percipience, comprehensionRelated Words absorption, assimilation, digestion, uptake; conception, visualization; awareness, consciousness, enlightenment, realizationNear Antonyms misapprehension, miscomprehension, misinterpretation, misperception, misunderstandingAntonyms incomprehension, noncomprehension