belief

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in another: My belief in you is as strong as ever.
2. n. Mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something: His explanation of what happened defies belief.
3. n. Something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Confidence reposed in any person or thing; faith; trust: as, a child's belief in his parents.
2. n. A conviction of the truth of a given proposition or an alleged fact, resting upon grounds insufficient to constitute positive knowledge. Knowledge is a state of mind which necessarily implies a corresponding state of things; belief is a state of mind merely, and does not necessarily involve a corresponding state of things. But belief is sometimes used to include the absolute conviction or certainty which accompanies knowledge.
3. n. Persuasion of the truth of a proposition, but with the consciousness that the positive evidence for it is insufficient or wanting; especially, assurance of the truth of what rests chiefly or solely upon authority. In this sense, the word sometimes implies that the proposition is admitted as only probable.
4. n. That which is believed; an object of belief.
5. n. The whole body of tenets held by the professors of any faith.
6. n. A creed; a formula embodying the essential doctrines of a religion or a church.
7. n. Synonyms and Opinion, Conviction, etc. (see persuasion); credence, trust, credit, confidence. Doctrine.

Wiktionary

1. n. Mental acceptance of a claim as truth regardless of supporting or contrary empirical evidence.
2. n. Something believed.
3. n. The quality or state of believing.
4. n. Religious faith.
5. n. One's religious or moral convictions.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Assent to a proposition or affirmation, or the acceptance of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or testimony; partial or full assurance without positive knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction; confidence.
2. n. A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith.
3. n. The thing believed; the object of belief.
4. n. A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of any class of views; doctrine; creed.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a vague idea in which some confidence is placed
2. n. any cognitive content held as true