different between think vs apprehend

English

Alternative forms

• thinck, thinke (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: th?ngk, IPA^(key): /???k/
• (Appalachian) IPA^(key): [?æ?k]
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle English thinken, thynken, thenken, thenchen, from Old English þen?an, þen?ean (“to think”), from Proto-Germanic *þankijan? (“to think, suppose, perceive”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think, feel, know”). Cognate with Scots think, thynk (“to think”), North Frisian teenk, taanke, tanke, tånke (“to think”), Saterland Frisian toanke (“to think”), West Frisian tinke (“to think”), Dutch denken (“to think”), Afrikaans dink (“to think”), Low German denken (“to think”), dinken, German denken (“to think”), Danish tænke (“to think”), Swedish tänka (“to think”), Norwegian Bokmål tenke (“to think”), Norwegian Nynorsk tenkja (“to think”), Icelandic þekkja (“to know, recognise, identify, perceive”), Latin tonge? (“know”).

Verb

think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past and past participle thought)

1. (transitive) To ponder, to go over in one's head.

   • So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

2. (intransitive) To communicate to oneself in one's mind, to try to find a solution to a problem.
3. (intransitive) To conceive of something or someone (usually followed by of; infrequently, by on).
4. (transitive) To be of opinion (that); to consider, judge, regard, or look upon (something) as.
   • 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter IX. "The Sea and the Desert", page 182.

     […] one man showed me a young oak which he had transplanted from behind the town, thinking it an apple-tree.
5. (transitive) To guess; to reckon.

6. To plan; to be considering; to be of a mind (to do something).

   • The cupbearer shrugged up his shoulders in displeasure. "I thought to have lodged him in the solere chamber," said he […]
7. To presume; to venture.

   • Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (ponder): See Thesaurus:ponder
• (communicate to oneself in one's mind): See Thesaurus:think
• (be of the opinion (that)): See Thesaurus:have opinion
• (guess, reckon): guess See Thesaurus:suppose
• (consider, judge, regard something as): See Thesaurus:deem

Derived terms

Related terms

• forthink
• thought
• thunk
• thank

Translations

Noun

think (usually uncountable, plural thinks)

1. (chiefly Britain) An act of thinking; consideration (of something).

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English thinken, thynken, thenken (also thinchen, thünchen), from Old English þyncan (“to seem, appear”), from Proto-Germanic *þunkijan? (“to seem”). Cognate with Dutch dunken (“to seem, appear”), German dünken (“to seem, appear”), Danish tykkes (“to seem”), Swedish tycka (“to seem, think, regard”), Icelandic þykja (“to be regarded, be considered, seem”). More at methinks.

Verb

think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past and past participle thought)

1. (obsolete except in methinks) To seem, to appear.

Translations

References

Scots

Etymology

From earlier thynk, from Middle English thynken, thinken, from Old English þencan, þen?ean.

Verb

think (third-person singular present thinks, present participle thinking, past thocht, past participle thocht)

1. (transitive) to think, to conceive, to have in mind
2. (transitive) to believe, to hold as an opinion, to judge; to feel, to have as an emotion
3. (transitive or intransitive) to ponder, to meditate, to consider, to reflect on
4. (transitive or intransitive) to have scruples, to doubt, to reconsider
5. to devise, to work out, to contrive
6. (archaic, with shame) to be ashamed

Noun

think (plural thinks)

1. thought, opinion, frequently one’s own opinion

References

• “think” in Dictionary of the Scots Language, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh, retrieved 19 June 2018.

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French apprehender (compare modern French appréhender), from Latin apprehendere. Compare Spanish aprehender.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /æ.p?i?h?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

apprehend (third-person singular simple present apprehends, present participle apprehending, simple past and past participle apprehended)

1. (transitive, archaic) To take or seize; to take hold of.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, Of Contentedness

     We have two hands to apprehend it.

   1. (transitive, law enforcement) To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest.

2. (transitive) To take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind; to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider.
   • 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warre

     This suspicion of Earl Reimund, though at first but a buzz, soon got a sting in the king's head, and he violently apprehended it.

   • 1858, William Ewart Gladstone, Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age

     The eternal laws, such as the heroic age apprehended them.
3. (transitive) To anticipate; especially, to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear.
4. (intransitive) To think, believe, or be of opinion; to understand; to suppose.
5. (intransitive) To be apprehensive; to fear.
   • c. 1700, Nicholas Rowe (translator), Characters: Or, the Manners of the Age (originally by Jean de La Bruyère)

     It is worse to apprehend than to suffer.

Usage notes

To apprehend, comprehend. These words come into comparison as describing acts of the mind. Apprehend denotes the laying hold of a thing mentally, so as to understand it clearly, at least in part. Comprehend denotes the embracing or understanding it in all its compass and extent. We may apprehend many truths which we do not comprehend. The very idea of God supposes that He may be apprehended, though not comprehended, by rational beings. We may apprehend much of Shakespeare's aim and intention in the character of Hamlet or King Lear; but few will claim that they have comprehended all that is embraced in these characters. --Trench.
(material dates from 1913)

Synonyms

• catch, seize, arrest, detain, capture, conceive, understand, imagine, believe, fear, dread

Derived terms

• apprehension
• misapprehend

Translations