📒 to know or realize the meaning of words, a language, what somebody says, etc.
- understand (something) Can you understand French?
- Do you understand the instructions?
- She didn't understand the form she was signing.
📒 to know or realize how or why something happens, how it works or why it is important
- understand something Doctors still don't understand much about the disease.
- No one is answering the phone—I can't understand it.
- I fully understand the reason for your decision.
📒 to know somebody’s character, how they feel and why they behave in the way they do
- understand somebody Nobody understands me.
- He doesn't understand women at all.
- We understand each other, even if we don’t always agree.
📒 to think or believe that something is true because you have been told that it is
- understand (that)… I understand (that) you wish to see the manager.
- Am I to understand that you refuse?
- understand somebody/something to be/have something The Prime Minister is understood to have been extremely angry about the report.
📒 to agree something with somebody without it needing to be said
- I thought it was understood that my expenses would be paid.
📒 to realize that a word in a phrase or sentence is not expressed and to supply it in your mind
- In the sentence ‘I can't drive’, the object ‘a car’ is understood.
📒 to make somebody believe/understand something
- I was given to understand that she had resigned.
📒 to make your meaning clear, especially in another language
- He doesn't speak much Japanese but he can make himself understood.