different between belief vs vagary

English

Etymology

From Middle English bileve, from Old English l?afa, from Proto-Germanic *laubô. Compare German Glaube (“faith, belief”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??li?f/, /b??li?f/
• Rhymes: -i?f
• Hyphenation: be?lief

Noun

belief (countable and uncountable, plural beliefs)

1. Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
2. Faith or trust in the reality of something; often based upon one's own reasoning, trust in a claim, desire of actuality, and/or evidence considered.

3. (countable) Something believed.
4. (uncountable) The quality or state of believing.

5. (uncountable) Religious faith.

6. (in the plural) One's religious or moral convictions.

Derived terms

• beliefful
• beyond belief
• disbelief
• forebelief
• self-belief
• unbelief
• wanbelief

Related terms

• believe

Translations

Anagrams

• befile, belfie

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

belief

1. imperative of believen

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [b??li?f]
• Hyphenation: be?lief

Verb

belief

1. first-person singular preterite of belaufen
2. third-person singular preterite of belaufen

English

Etymology

From Latin vagus (“wandering”).

Pronunciation

• (General American, formerly) IPA^(key): /v?????i/
• (General American, now commonly) IPA^(key): /?ve????i/

Noun

vagary (plural vagaries)

1. An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.
   • 1871, Charles Kingsley, At Last: A Christmas In The West Indies, ch. 8:

     It now turns out that the Pitch Lake, like most other things, owes its appearance on the surface to no convulsion or vagary at all, but to a most slow, orderly, and respectable process of nature, by which buried vegetable matter, which would have become peat, and finally brown coal, in a temperate climate, becomes, under the hot tropic soil, asphalt and oil.
2. An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:whim

   • 1905, Jack London, War of the Classes, Preface:

     And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,—still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.

Derived terms

• vagarity
• vagarious

Related terms

• vague
• vagrant
• vagabond

Translations

See also

• vaguery

Anagrams

• Varyag