 3 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
belief
noun
1: any cognitive content held as true [ant: {unbelief}]
2: a vague idea in which some confidence is placed; "his
impression of her was favorable"; "what are your feelings
about the crisis?"; "it strengthened my belief in his
sincerity"; "I had a feeling that she was lying" [syn: {impression},
{feeling}, {notion}, {opinion}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Belief \Be*lief"\, noun [OE. bileafe, bileve; cf. AS. gele['a]fa.
See {Believe}.]
1. 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; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our
senses.
Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest
suspicion to the fullest assurance. --Reid.
2. (Theol.) A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith.
No man can attain [to] belief by the bare
contemplation of heaven and earth. --Hooker.
3. The thing believed; the object of belief.
Superstitious prophecies are not only the belief of
fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men. --Bacon.
4. A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of
any class of views; doctrine; creed.
In the heat of persecution to which Christian belief
was subject upon its first promulgation. --Hooker.
{Ultimate belief}, a first principle incapable of proof; an
intuitive truth; an intuition. --Sir W. Hamilton.
Syn: Credence; trust; reliance; assurance; opinion.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
73 Moby Thesaurus words for "belief":
a belief, acceptance, acquiescence, arrogance, article of faith,
assent, assurance, assuredness, axiom, canon, certainty, certitude,
cocksureness, concept, confidence, confidentness, conviction,
courage, credence, credibility, credit, credo, creed, dependence,
doctrine, dogma, eye, faith, feeling, fundamental, hubris, idea,
intuition, judgement, law, maxim, mind, opinion, orthodoxy,
overconfidence, oversureness, overweening, overweeningness,
persuasion, poise, pomposity, positiveness, precept, pride,
principle, principles, reliance, religion, religious belief,
religious faith, security, self-assurance, self-confidence,
self-importance, self-reliance, sentiment, settled belief,
subjective certainty, sureness, surety, system of beliefs,
teaching, tenet, theology, tradition, trust, trustworthiness,
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