believe

English

Etymology

From be-/ge- + a short form of Old English ġelȳfan, (leafa).

Alternative forms

• beleeve (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK & US) IPA: /bɪˈliːv/, /bəˈliːv/, SAMPA: /bI"li:v/, /b@"li:v/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧lieve
• Rhymes: -iːv

Verb

believe (third-person singular simple present believes, present participle believing, simple past and past participle believed)

1. (transitive) To think something is true without having proof or empirical evidence.

   I believe there is life after death.

   I believe in faeries

2. (transitive) To accept that someone is telling the truth.

   Why did I ever believe you?

3. (transitive) To accept as true.

   If you believe the numbers, you'll agree we need change.

4. (intransitive) To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.

   After that night in the church, I believed.

5. (transitive) To consider likely.

   I believe it might rain tomorrow.(This definition is the same as "to accept as true", but for a likely event "might rain tomorrow").

Usage notes

• The transitive verb believe and the phrasal verb believe in are similar but can have very different implications.
  • To “believe” someone or something means to accept specific pieces of information as truth: believe the news, believe the lead witness. To “believe a complete stranger” means to accept a stranger's story with little evidence.
  • To “believe in” someone or something means to place faith in that person or concept: believe in liberty, believe in God. To “believe in one's fellow man” means to place faith in mankind.
• Meanings sometimes overlap. To believe in a religious text would also require affirming at least the major principles. To believe a religious text might likewise imply placing one's faith in it, in addition to accepting its statements as facts.

Quotations

• 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Luke 1:1

  Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us...

Derived terms

• believable
• believability
• believe it or not
• believe in
• believe you me
• believer
• can you believe
• disbelieve
• unbelievable
• unbeliever

Related terms

• belief
• disbelief

Translations

to accept that someone is telling the truth (object: person)

Afrikaans: glo Arabic: اعتقد (ar) (iʿtáqada) Armenian: հավատալ (hy) (havatal) Aromanian: cred Bulgarian: вярвам (bg) Cebuano: tuo Chinese: Dungan: щин (shchin) Mandarin: 相信 (cmn) (xiāngxìn) Czech: věřit (cs) Dalmatian: credro Danish: tro (da) Dutch: geloven (nl) Esperanto: kredi je (eo), kredi (eo) Finnish: uskoa (fi) French: croire (fr) German: glauben (de) Greek: πιστεύω (el) (pistévo) Hungarian: hisz (hu) Ido: kredar (io)

Irish: creid (ga) Italian: credere (it) Japanese: 信じる (ja) (しんじる, shinjiru) Korean: 믿다 (ko) (mitda) Latgalian: ticēt, īticēt Latin: crēdō (la) Latvian: ticēt (lv) Luxembourgish: gleewen (lb) Norwegian: tro (no) Polish: wierzyć (pl) Portuguese: acreditar (pt), crer (pt) Romanian: crede (ro) Russian: верить (ru) (vérit’) impf., поверить (ru) (povérit') pf. Slovene: verjeti (sl) Spanish: creer (es) Swedish: tro (sv) Turkish: inanmak (tr) Welsh: credu (cy) West Frisian: liuwe (fy)

to accept as true

Afrikaans: glo Arabic: اعتقد (ar) (iʿtáqada), آمن بـ (ar) (ʾāmana bi-) Bulgarian: вярвам (bg), смятам (bg), мисля (bg) Chinese: Dungan: щин (shchin) Mandarin: 相信 (cmn) (xiāngxìn) Danish: tro (da) Dutch: geloven (nl) Esperanto: kredi (eo), fidi (eo) Finnish: uskoa (fi) French: croire (fr) German: glauben (de) Greek: πιστεύω (el) (pistévo) Irish: creid (ga) Italian: credere (it)

Japanese: 信じる (ja) (しんじる, shinjiru) Korean: 믿다 (ko) Latin: crēdō (la) Latvian: ticēt (lv) Luxembourgish: gleewen (lb) Old Provençal: creyre Portuguese: acreditar (pt), crer (pt), confiar (pt) Romanian: crede (ro) Russian: верить (ru) (vérit’) impf., поверить (ru) (povérit') pf. Slovene: verjeti (sl) Spanish: creer (es) Swedish: tro (sv) Turkish: inanmak (tr) Welsh: credu (cy) West Frisian: liuwe (fy)

to consider likely

Afrikaans: glo, glo (af) Arabic: ظن (ar) (ẓánna) Bulgarian: смятам (bg), мисля (bg) Danish: tro (da), mene (da) Dutch: geloven, denken (to think), geloven (nl), (to think) denken (nl) Esperanto: kredi (eo) Finnish: uskoa (fi) French: croire (fr) German: glauben (de) Irish: creid (ga) Italian: credere (it)

Korean: 생각하다 (ko) ("to think") Latin: crēdō (la) Polish: sądzić, wydawać się, przypuszczać Portuguese: acreditar (pt), crer (pt), achar (pt) Russian: полагать (ru) (polagát'), считать (ru) (š'itát'), думать (ru) (dúmat') Scottish Gaelic: smaoinich (gd), saoil (gd) Swedish: tro (sv), förmoda (sv), anta (sv) Turkish: inanmak (tr) Welsh: credu (cy) West Frisian: liuwe (fy)

to have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth

Arabic: آمن (ar) (ʾāmana) (present tense: يؤمن (ar) (yúʾmin)) Bulgarian: вярвам (bg) Danish: tro (da) Dutch: geloven in Esperanto: kredi (eo), fidi (eo) Finnish: uskoa (fi) French: croire (fr) German: glauben (de) Greek: πιστεύω (el) (pistévo)

Irish: creid (ga) Portuguese: acreditar (pt), crer (pt) Russian: верить (ru) (v'érit') impf., поверить (ru) (pov'érit') pf. Slovene: verjeti (sl), verovati (sl) Spanish: creer (es), tener fe (es) Swedish: tro (sv) Turkish: inanmak (tr) Welsh: credu (cy) West Frisian: liuwe (fy)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Serbo-Croatian: vjerovati Estonian: uskuma Ido: kredar Indonesian: percaya Interlingua: creder

Khmer: ជឿ (jeuə) Norwegian: tro Romanian: crede Slovene: verovati Volapük: kredön

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: kind · form · hundred · #280: believe · white · means · thus

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Dutch

Verb

believe

1. singular present subjunctive of believen.

Anagrams

• beviele