1. (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Understand.
2. (a.) Knowing; intelligent; skillful; as, he is an understanding man.
3. (n.) The act of one who understands a thing, in any sense of the verb; knowledge; discernment; comprehension; interpretation; explanation.
4. (n.) An agreement of opinion or feeling; adjustment of differences; harmony; anything mutually understood or agreed upon; as, to come to an understanding with another.
5. (n.) The power to understand; the intellectual faculty; the intelligence; the rational powers collectively conceived an designated; the higher capacities of the intellect; the power to distinguish truth from falsehood, and to adapt means to ends.
6. (n.) Specifically, the discursive faculty; the faculty of knowing by the medium or use of general conceptions or relations. In this sense it is contrasted with, and distinguished from, the reason.
Thesaurus Entries
IQ, Spartan, Vernunft, abatement of differences, acceptation, accepting, acclamation, accommodation, accord, accordance, accordant, acute, adjustment, affinity, agape, agreeable, agreeing, agreement, agreement of all, akin, all-knowing, alliance, amicable, amity, apperception, apperceptive, appercipient, apprehending, apprehension, apprehensive, argute, armed with patience, armistice, arrangement, astute, at one, attuned, aware, awareness, bargain, binding agreement, bleeding, bond, bonds of harmony, brain, brains, bright, brotherly love, caliber, capacity, caritas, cartel, cement of friendship, charitable, charity, chorus, clairvoyance, clement, cogent, cognizant, collective agreement, command, commiserative, commitment, common assent, common consent, communion, community, community of interests, compact, compassionate, compatibility, compatible, composition, comprehending, comprehension, compromise, conception, conceptive, conceptual, conceptualization, concert, concession, concord, concordance, concordant, concordat, concurrence, condolent, congenial, congeniality, conscious, consensus, consensus gentium, consensus of opinion, consensus omnium, consent, consentaneity, consortium, contract, convention, cop-out, cordial understanding, correspondence, corresponding, covenant, covenant of salt, deal, deductive power, desertion of principle, dicker, discerning, discernment, disciplined, discourse of reason, discrimination, discursive, discursive reason, empathetic, empathic, empathy, employment contract, en rapport, endurant, engagement, enlightenment, entente, entente cordiale, esemplastic power, esprit, esprit de corps, estimation, evasion of responsibility, farseeing, farsighted, feeling of identity, fellow feeling, fellowship, fix on, forbearant, forbearing, foreknowledge, foreseeing, foresighted, forethoughted, forethoughtful, formal agreement, frictionless, frictionlessness, general acclamation, general agreement, general consent, general voice, gentle, give-and-take, giving way, good sense, good vibes, good vibrations, grasp, gray matter, grip, happy family, harmonious, harmony, head, headpiece, human, humane, ideation, ideational, identity, import, in accord, in concert, in rapport, in tune, incisive, indulgent, inharmony, insight, insightful, integrative power, intellect, intellection, intellectual, intellectual faculty, intellectual grasp, intellectual power, intellectualism, intellectuality, intelligence, intelligence quotient, intelligent, intendment, interpretation, intuition, ironclad agreement, judgement, kinship, knowing, knowledge, knowledgeable, legal agreement, legal contract, lenient, like-minded, like-mindedness, long-suffering, longheaded, longsighted, love, mastery, meaning, meeting of minds, melting, mens, mental age, mental capacity, mental grasp, mental ratio, mentality, merciful, message, mind, mindful, mother wit, mutual agreement, mutual concession, mutual understanding, mutuality, native wit, noetic, not so dumb, notion, nous, obligation, of one mind, omniscient, one accord, one voice, oneness, opinion, pact, paction, patient, patient as Job, peace, peaceful, penetrating, penetration, perception, perceptive, percipience
