Crossword Dictionary
BELIEF
belief - n
any cognitive content held as true
Synonyms
acceptance, assumption, conclusion, confidence, conviction, expectation, faith, feeling, hope, idea, judgment, knowledge, notion, opinion, position, suspicion, theory, thinking, trust, understanding, view, admission, assent, assurance, avowal, axiom, certainty, conjecture, credence, credit, deduction, divination, fancy, guess, hypothesis, impression, intuition, mind, mindset, persuasion, postulation, presumption
Examples
Objections to the belief in immortality have been advanced from the standpoints of materialism, naturalism, pessimism and pantheism.
Thus the ancient Greek religion was especially disposed to belief in heroes and demigods.
Dean tried hard to exclude Jennifer Radisson from consideration as a malefactor, although he reluctantly admitted his sole reason to pass on her as a suspect was his belief in her story.
Etymology
late 12c., bileave, "confidence reposed in a person or thing; faith in a religion," replacing Old English geleafa "belief, faith," from West Germanic *ga-laubon "to hold dear, esteem, trust" (source also of Old Saxon gilobo, Middle Dutch gelove, Old High German giloubo, German Glaube), from *galaub- "dear, esteemed," from intensive prefix *ga- + PIE root *leubh- "to care, desire, love." The prefix in English was altered on analogy of the verb believe. The distinction of the final consonant from that of believe developed 15c.