understand (understands 3rd person present) (understanding present participle) (understood past tense & past participle )
1 verb If you understand someone or understand what they are saying, you know what they mean.
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Rusty nodded as though she understood the old woman... V n
I don't understand what you are talking about... V wh
He was speaking poor English, trying to make himself understood. make pron-refl V-ed
2 verb If you understand a language, you know what someone is saying when they are speaking that language.
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I couldn't read or understand a word of Yiddish, so I asked him to translate. V n
3 verb To understand someone means to know how they feel and why they behave in the way that they do.
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It would be nice to have someone who really understood me, a friend... V n
Trish had not exactly understood his feelings... V n
She understands why I get tired and grumpy. V wh
4 verb You say that you understand something when you know why or how it happens.
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They are too young to understand what is going on... V wh
In the effort to understand AIDS, attention is moving from the virus to the immune system. V n
5 verb If you understand that something is the case, you think it is true because you have heard or read that it is. You can say that something is understood to be the case to mean that people generally think it is true.
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We understand that she's in the studio recording her second album... V that
As I understand it, you came round the corner by the cricket field and there was the man in the road... V it
The management is understood to be very unwilling to agree to this request... be V-ed to-inf
It is understood that the veteran reporter had a heart attack. it be V-ed that/to-inf
6 If someone is given to understand that something is the case, it is communicated to them that it is the case, usually without them being told directly.
give someone to understand phrase give inflects, usu PHR that
I am given to understand that he was swearing throughout the game at our fans.
7 You can use understand in expressions like do you understand? or is that understood? after you have told someone what you want, to make sure that they have understood you and will obey you.
do you understand/is that understood convention
You do not hit my grandchildren, do you understand?..., I don't need it, understand?..., I don't want to hear another word about it. Is that understood, Emma?
