Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To accept as true or real.
  • intransitive verb To credit with veracity.
  • intransitive verb To expect or suppose; think.
  • intransitive verb To have firm faith, especially religious faith.
  • intransitive verb To have faith, confidence, or trust.
  • intransitive verb To have confidence in the truth or value of something.
  • intransitive verb To have an opinion; think.
  • idiom (believe (one's) ears) To trust what one has heard.
  • idiom (believe (one's) eyes) To trust what one has seen.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To have faith or confidence.
  • To exercise trust or confidence; rely through faith: generally with on.
  • To be persuaded of the truth of anything; accept a doctrine, principle, system, etc., as true, or as an object of faith: with in: as, “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,” etc., Apostles' Crecd; to believe in Buddhism. See belief.
  • To credit upon the ground of authority, testimony, argument, or any other ground than complete demonstration; accept as true; give credence to. See belief.
  • To give credence to (a person making a statement, anything said, etc.).
  • To expect or hope with confidence; trust.
  • To be of opinion; think; understand: as, I believe he has left the city.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To exercise belief in; to credit upon the authority or testimony of another; to be persuaded of the truth of, upon evidence furnished by reasons, arguments, and deductions of the mind, or by circumstances other than personal knowledge; to regard or accept as true; to place confidence in; to think; to consider.
  • intransitive verb To have a firm persuasion, esp. of the truths of religion; to have a persuasion approaching to certainty; to exercise belief or faith.
  • intransitive verb To think; to suppose.
  • intransitive verb To believe that the qualities or effects of an action or state are beneficial: as, to believe in sea bathing, or in abstinence from alcoholic beverages.
  • intransitive verb to accept implicitly as an object of religious trust or obedience; to have faith in.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To think something is true without having proof or empirical evidence.
  • verb transitive To accept that someone is telling the truth.
  • verb transitive To accept as true.
  • verb intransitive To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.
  • verb transitive To consider likely.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb follow a credo; have a faith; be a believer
  • verb judge or regard; look upon; judge
  • verb accept as true; take to be true
  • verb be confident about something
  • verb credit with veracity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bileven, from Old English belȳfan, belēfan, gelēfan; see leubh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English beleven, bileven, from Old English belīefan ("to believe"), from Proto-Germanic *bilaubijanan (“to believe”), equivalent to be- +‎ leave (“to allow, permit”). Cognate with Scots beleve ("to believe"). Compare Old English ġelīefan ("to be dear to; believe, trust"), Old English ġelēafa ("belief, faith, confidence, trust"), Old English lēof ("dear, valued, beloved, pleasant, agreeable"; > English lief). Related also to North Frisian leauwjen ("to believe"), West Frisian leauwe ("to believe"), Dutch geloven ("to believe"), German glauben ("to believe"), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌾𐌰𐌽 (galaubjan, "to hold dear, valuable, or satisfactory, approve of, believe").

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Examples

  • _ Yes, yes, _said the other_, I believe she is: _But I believe_, said I, _You but taak'n all this while, for no Body mun do such things.

    The London-Bawd: With Her Character and Life Discovering the Various and Subtle Intrigues of Lewd Women Anonymous

  • Doubt strikes at the root of Justice and of Love -- not the doubt that is the half-brother to Disbelief, but the doubt which wonders always and always if we believe most easily what we _want to believe_, and if our firmest conviction against such Belief is not, more than anything else, yet one more manifestation of what we desire so earnestly _to doubt_.

    Over the Fireside with Silent Friends Richard King 1913

  • And while we believe that such efforts are praiseworthy for the reason that many persons must be first convinced in that way, still we feel that one must really _feel_ the truth of the doctrine from something within his own consciousness, before he will really _believe_ it to be truth.

    A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga William Walker Atkinson 1897

  • "Though your lady excelled, as much as your diamond, _I could not believe she excelled many_; that is, I too _could_ yet _believe that there are_ many _whom_ she did not excel."

    Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • And, for anyone else who is reading this, I believe if you load entities without a PK: EntityLoad (myEntity, primaryKey) ... and no entity is returned, I * believe* that

    Fullasagoog 2010

  • I'm not really sure debunking this stuff really accomplishes anything ... if someone wants to believe a candidate for president is a closet terrorist, that's * what they want to believe*, the rumors are just an excuse.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2008

  • _nobody_ would believe him, and who _could believe_ that in _a day_, almost without struggle, _all would be over_, and the past, the present, the future carried away on an unaccountable storm!

    The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 2 (of 3), 1844-1853 A Selection from her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1837 and 1861 Queen of Great Britain Victoria 1860

  • Nice job Pete - you even managed to get John to mention his "Milton" which I believe is code for book collection, but I could be wrong.

    I Just Don't Get Poetry 2005

  • In your descriptions of the personality of Moscow, you use the Russian word "naglost," which I believe translates as "an unseemly blend of arrogance and shamelessness."

    Scenes From Russian Life 2003

  • In your descriptions of the personality of Moscow, you use the Russian word "naglost," which I believe translates as "an unseemly blend of arrogance and shamelessness."

    Scenes From Russian Life 2003

Comments

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  • '"My thesis is this: I want you to believe."

    '"To believe what?"

    '"To believe in things you cannot."' -Dracula, by Bram Stoker

    February 21, 2008

  • "Never believe anything until it's officially denied."

    - Margaret Atwood

    November 7, 2008