different between understand vs quality

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], from Old French qualité, from Latin qu?lit?tem, accusative of qu?lit?s, from qu?lis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *k?o- (“who, how”). Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ??????? (poiót?s, “quality”), coined by Plato from ????? (poîos, “of what nature, of what kind”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kw?l?ti/
• (UK, obsolete) IPA^(key): /?kwæl?ti/, /?kwæl?t?/
• (US, father-bother merger, weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /?kw?l?ti/, [?k?w????i]

Noun

quality (countable and uncountable, plural qualities)

1. (uncountable) Level of excellence.
   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     He called for China’s cooperation in efforts to improve air quality.

2. (countable) A property or an attribute that differentiates a thing or person.
3. (archaic) High social position. (See also the quality.)

4. (uncountable) The degree to which a man-made object or system is free from bugs and flaws, as opposed to scope of functions or quantity of items.
5. (thermodynamics) In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
6. (emergency medicine, countable) The third step in OPQRST where the responder investigates what the NOI/MOI feels like.

7. (countable, Britain, journalism) A newspaper with relatively serious, high-quality content.
   • 1998, Bill Coxall, Lynton Robins, Robert Leach, Contemporary British Politics (page 164)

     It is argued that in the last ten years or so, quality broadsheet newspapers have become more like the tabloids. Anthony Sampson has argued that 'the frontier between the qualities and popular papers has virtually disappeared'.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "quality": high, good, excellent, exceptional, great, outstanding, satisfactory, acceptable, sufficient, adequate, poor, low, bad, inferior, dubious, environmental, visual, optical, industrial, total, artistic, educational, physical, musical, chemical, spiritual, intellectual, architectural, mechanical.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:characteristic

Hyponyms

• human quality
• industrial quality

Coordinate terms

• (a property that differentiates): quiddity

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

quality (comparative more quality, superlative most quality)

1. Being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose.

Derived terms

• qualityness

Related terms

• qualia
• qualitative

Translations

References

• Quality (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

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