different between conclude vs understand

English

Etymology

From Middle English concluden, borrowed from Latin concl?dere (“to shut up, close, end”), present active infinitive of concl?d?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n.?klu?d/

Verb

conclude (third-person singular simple present concludes, present participle concluding, simple past and past participle concluded)

1. (intransitive) To end; to come to an end.

   The story concluded with a moral.
2. (transitive) To bring to an end; to close; to finish.
   • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

     I will conclude this part with the speech of a counsellor of state.

3. (transitive) To bring about as a result; to effect; to make.

   to conclude a bargain
4. (transitive) To come to a conclusion, to a final decision.

   From the evidence, I conclude that this man was murdered.

   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Advantages of Religion to Societies

     No man can certainly conclude God's love or hatred to any person by anything that befalls him.

5. (obsolete) To make a final determination or judgment concerning; to judge; to decide.
   • 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses

     But no frail man, however great or high, / Can be concluded blest before he die.

6. To shut off; to restrain; to limit; to estop; to bar; generally in the passive.

   The defendant is concluded by his own plea.

   A judgment concludes the introduction of further evidence.

   • 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature

     If therefore they will appeal to revelation for their creation they must be concluded by it.

7. (obsolete) To shut up; to enclose.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     The very person of Christ [was] concluded within the grave.

8. (obsolete) To include; to comprehend; to shut up together; to embrace.
9. (logic) to deduce, to infer (develop a causal relation)

Antonyms

• (to end): begin, initiate, start, commence

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ude

Verb

conclude

1. third-person singular present indicative of concludere

Latin

Verb

concl?de

1. second-person singular present active imperative of concl?d?

English

Alternative forms

• understaund (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English understanden, from Old English understandan (“to understand”), from Proto-Germanic *under (“between”) + *standan? (“to stand”), equivalent to Old English under- (“between, inter-”) + standan (“to stand”). Cognate with Old Frisian understonda (“to understand, experience, learn”), Old High German understantan (“to understand”), Middle Danish understande (“to understand”). Compare also Saterland Frisian understunda, unnerstounde (“to dare, survey, measure”), Dutch onderstaan (“to undertake, presume”), German unterstehen (“to be subordinate”). More at inter-, stand.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ?n(?)d?r-st?nd', IPA^(key): /(?)?nd??stænd/,
• (General American) enPR: ?n?d?r-st?nd', IPA^(key): /??nd??stænd/, [??????stænd], [??????ste??nd]
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /??nd???stand/
• Rhymes: -ænd
• Hyphenation: un?der?stand

Verb

understand (third-person singular simple present understands, present participle understanding, simple past and past participle understood)

1. (transitive) To grasp a concept fully and thoroughly, especially (of words, statements, art, etc.) to be aware of the meaning of and (of people) to be aware of the intent of.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 20:

     ‘I came back here, had a wank and finished that book.’
     ‘The Naked Lunch?’
     ‘Yeah.’
     ‘What did you reckon?’
     ‘Crap.’
     ‘You're just saying that because you didn't understand it,’ said Adrian.
     ‘I'm just saying that because I did understand it,’ said Tom. ‘Any road up, we'd better start making some toast.’

2. To believe, to think one grasps sufficiently despite potentially incomplete knowledge.

3. (humorous, rare, obsolete outside circus, acrobatics) To stand underneath, to support.

Usage notes

• In its sense of "imputing meaning", use is usually limited to the past participle understood.
• The obsolete perfect form understanded is occasionally found, e.g. in the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church.

Synonyms

• (to fully grasp a concept): apprehend, comprehend, grasp, know, perceive, pick up what someone is putting down, realise, grok
• (to believe one grasps a concept): believe

Antonyms

• misunderstand

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• explain
• why

Further reading

• understand in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• understand in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• unstranded