comprehensioncom‧pre‧hen‧sion /ˌkɒmprɪˈhenʃən $ ˌkɑːm-/ ●●○ noun 
They don’t have the least comprehension of what I’m trying to do. The research project will focus on children’s comprehension of pretence. Why you let her talk you into doing such a foolish thing is beyond my comprehension (=impossible for me to understand).2[countable, uncountable] an exercise given to students to test how well they understand written or spoken language: new methods of testing reading comprehension a comprehension task
WORD ORIGINcomprehension
Origin:
1400-1500 Latin comprehensio, from comprehendere; ➔ COMPRHENDEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- He was caught up in frightening events far beyond his comprehension.
- Some politicians seems to have no comprehension of what it's like to be poor.
- The teacher gave us a comprehension test.
- The test includes a section on reading comprehension.
- We tried to explain the causes of the war at a child's level of comprehension.
- You need to practise your reading comprehension more.
- Bailey and Harrison found that for certain types of passage cloze scores were potentially unreliable indicators of comprehension.
- But with Clint Albertson, all the learning furthered my comprehension of the play.
- He pleaded for sources to be used for more than just illustration or comprehension.
- I crawled past a man and a woman, whispering to each other with an intensity beyond comprehension.
- In cases of conduction aphasia, comprehension of spoken words and simple spoken sentences can be intact.
- Such abstraction is essential to human understanding, and it has opened up comprehension of natural processes in an amazing way.
- The outcome of the research should be a more refined version of discourse comprehension and an evaluation of connectionist models as implementations.
- What many such individuals have done is to use their superior spatial abilities to buttress their weaker verbal pattern comprehension abilities.
Longman Language Activatorwhen you understand something
when you understand something, especially a piece of spoken or written language, or the ability to do this: · The teacher gave us a comprehension test.· We tried to explain the causes of the war at a child's level of comprehension.reading comprehension (=ability to understand what you read): · You need to practise your reading comprehension more.beyond somebody's comprehension (=too difficult to understand): · He was caught up in frightening events far beyond his comprehension.
when you understand a situation, subject, idea etc, or someone's ability to do this: · A much greater level of understanding is required to carry out more complex experiments.understanding of: · He seems to have very little understanding of economics.· The research may lead to a better understanding of how the disease develops.
the ability to understand or realize something new about a subject or to more clearly understand the nature of a problem, situation, or subject etc: · Crick soon established himself as a scientist of great insight and creativity.insight into: · We help troubled teenagers gain some insight into their own problems.
WORD SETSabsenteeism, nounacademic, adjectiveacademy, nounadult education, nounalma mater, nounassessment, nounassessor, nounassignment, nounaudiovisual, adjectiveAV, binder, nounbiology, nounblackboard, nounbursary, nounbusiness studies, nounCAL, nounCALL, nouncareer counselor, nouncareers officer, nouncase study, nounCDT, nouncert., certificate, nouncertificated, adjectivechalkboard, nouncharm school, nounchemistry set, nouncivics, nounclass, nounclassicist, nounclassmate, nouncloze test, nouncoach, nouncoeducation, nouncollege, nouncollegiate, adjectivecommon room, nouncomprehension, nouncomprehensive, adjectivecomputer-literate, adjectivecomputer science, nouncontinuing education, nouncorrespondence course, nouncoursebook, nouncoursework, nouncrash course, nouncredit, nouncrib, verbcross, nouncurriculum, nounD, noundiploma, noundirect method, nounDirector of Studies, noundissect, verbdistance learning, noundistinction, noundo, verbdropout, noundyslexia, nounedify, verbedifying, adjectiveeducate, verbeducational, adjectiveeducationalist, nouneducator, nounEFL, nounELT, nounESL, nounESOL, nounESP, nounessay, nounevening class, nounexam, nounexamination, nounexamine, verbexercise, nounexercise book, nounexternal, adjectiveextracurricular, adjectiveF, fail, nounfellowship, nounfield, nounfield day, nounfield trip, nounfieldwork, nounflashcard, nounflip chart, nounflunk, verbfree period, nounfresher, nounfreshman, nounfurther education, nounglobe, noungoverness, noungrade, verbgraded, adjectivegrade point average, noungrind, nounheuristic, adjectivehistory, nounimmersion, nounineducable, adjectiveinfirmary, nounintake, nounintelligence quotient, nouninterdisciplinary, adjectiveintroductory, adjectiveinvigilate, verbIQ, nounjanitor, nounlearning curve, nounlesson, nounletter, nounletter, verbliberal arts, nounlibrarian, nounlibrary, nounlife science, nounmainstream, adjectivemasterclass, nounmatron, nounmedia studies, nounmnemonic, nounmoderate, verbmoderator, nounmodular, adjectivemodule, nounmultiple choice, adjectivenight school, nounnumerate, adjectiveopen house, nounoral, nounoverqualified, adjectivepapier mâché, nounpass, verbpass, nounpastoral, adjectivepedagogical, adjectivepedagogue, nounpedagogy, nounphonics, nounphrasebook, nounphysical education, nounpicture book, nounplacement, nounplaytime, nounpoli sci, nounpolitical science, nounpolitics, nounprincipal, nounprize day, nounproblem, nounproctor, nounprogrammed learning, nounprotégé, nounquad, nounqualification, nounqualify, verbquick, adjectiverector, nounre-educate, verbrefectory, nounreference, nounreference library, nounrequirement, nounresearch, nounresearch, verbresit, verbresource, nounresult, nounresume, nounretake, verbretake, nounreunion, nounreview, verbrevise, verbrevision, nounrole-play, nounrote, nounscholar, nounscholarship, nounscholastic, adjectiveschool, nounscience, nounscript, nounself-taught, adjectiveset, verbspeciality, nounspelling bee, nounstandard, adjectivestate school, nounstudent body, nounstudent government, nounstudent loan, nounstudent teaching, nounstudent union, nounstudy, verbstudy hall, nounsub, nounsummer holidays, nounsummer vacation, nounsuperintendent, nounteacher, nounteaching, nountechie, nounterm, nounterm paper, nounTESL, nounTESOL, nountext, nountextbook, nountick, nountick, verbtimetable, nountimetable, verbtranscript, nountrimester, nountruancy, nountuition, nountutor, nountutor, verbunderclassman, noununit, noununseen, nounvisual aid, nounvocational, adjectivewhiteboard, nounworkbook, nounworksheet, nounX, nounyearbook, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY Why you let her talk you into doing such a foolish thing is beyond my comprehension (=impossible for me to understand).COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN
1[uncountable] the ability to understand something SYN understandingcomprehension of Why you let her talk you into doing such a foolish thing is beyond my comprehension (=impossible for me to understand).· There is also evidence in favour of the view that what we might think of as pragmatic factors influence language comprehension.· We can therefore think of there being two somewhat different extra-sentential effects of context in language comprehension.· We have chosen these because, for the moment, we want to consider only language comprehension.· Why, then, have the majority of studies of normal adult language processing been concerned with language comprehension?· Two scales are provided for assessing language comprehension, one of which is specially modified so that only eye pointing is required.
VERB· Much emphasis is also placed on reading and comprehension.· Her reading comprehension was poor, and the gaps in her vocabulary were yawning.· He was quite fluent but seemed to read without comprehension.
They don’t have the least comprehension of what I’m trying to do. The research project will focus on children’s comprehension of pretence. Why you let her talk you into doing such a foolish thing is beyond my comprehension (=impossible for me to understand).2[countable, uncountable] an exercise given to students to test how well they understand written or spoken language: new methods of testing reading comprehension a comprehension task