believe
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der.
Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder.
Proto-Indo-European *h₁epider.
Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi
Proto-Germanic *bider.
Proto-Germanic *bi-
Proto-West Germanic *bi-
Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-der.
Proto-Germanic *laubō
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Germanic *-janą
Proto-Germanic *laubijaną
Proto-West Germanic *laubijan
Proto-West Germanic *bilaubijan
Old English belīefan
Middle English bileven
English believe
From Middle English beleven, bileven, from Old English belīefan (“to believe”), from Proto-West Germanic *bilaubijan (“to believe”), equivalent to be- + leave (“to give leave or permission to, permit, allow, grant”). Cognate with Scots beleve (“to believe”), Old Frisian bilēva (“to permit”), Middle Dutch beloven (“to believe, entrust”), Middle Low German belö̂ven (“to believe”), Middle High German belouben (“to believe”).
A related term in Old English was ġelīefan (“to be dear to; believe, trust”), from Proto-West Germanic *galaubijan (“to have faith, believe”), from Proto-Germanic *galaubijaną. Compare also Old English ġelēafa (“belief, faith, confidence, trust”), Old English lēof ("dear, valued, beloved, pleasant, agreeable" > English lief). Related also to North Frisian leauwjen (“to believe”), Saterland Frisian leeuwe (“to believe”), West Frisian leauwe (“to believe”), Dutch geloven (“to believe”), German Low German glöven (“to believe”), German glauben (“to believe”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌾𐌰𐌽 (galaubjan, “to hold dear, valuable, or satisfactory, approve of, believe”).
The prepositionally transitive senses with in are a semantic loan from Latin crēdō in aliquem / aliquid.
Base: leave
Affixes: be-
Inflected forms:
form: believes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: believing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: believed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: believed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: believe
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: believe
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: believed
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: believe
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: believest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: believed
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: believedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: believes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: believeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: believed
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: believe
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: believed
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: believe
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: believed
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: believe
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: believing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: believed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: beleeve
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: To accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: If you believe the numbers, you'll agree we need change.
I believe there are faeries.
FOꝛaſmuch as many haue taken in hande to ſet fooꝛth in oꝛder a declaration of thoſe things which are most ſurely beleeued among vs[…]
Many persons believe that the so-called "dollar of the daddies," weighing 412½ grains (nine tenths fine), having a ratio to gold of "16 to 1" in value when first coined, was the original dollar of the Constitution.
[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.
gloss: To accept that someone is telling the truth.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Why did I ever believe you?
BEloued, beleeue not euery ſpirit, but trie the ſpirits, whether they are of God: becauſe many falſe prophets are gone out into the woꝛld.
gloss: To have been persuaded to accept the factuality of something despite a lack of sufficient evidence therefore.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To have been persuaded to accept the factuality of something despite a lack of sufficient evidence therefore.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: After that night in the church, I believed.
[N]ow ſuch a liue vngodly, vvithout a care of doing the wil of the Lord (though they profeſſe him in their mouths, yea though they beleeue and acknowledge all the Articles of the Creed, yea haue knowledge of the Scripturs) yet if they liue vngodly, they deny God, and therefore ſhal be denied, […]
gloss: To opine, think, reckon.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Do you think this is good? —Hmm, I believe it's okay.
“Some people believe him charismatic,” Van Assen told me. “I am less sensitive to it.”
He believes that self-improvement and its growing popularity are symptoms of what he calls individualism.
gloss: [with in]
pos: verb
examples: Do you believe in God / the Easter Bunny / ghosts?
Since I don't believe in reincarnation, I believe that the only way to eliminate suffering is to die.
gloss: [with in]
pos: verb
examples: I don't believe in sex before marriage.
I don't believe in making my bed.
I'm happy to tell you there is very little in this world that I believe in.
The couple is one of the celebrities who believed in open relationships.
gloss: [with in]
pos: verb
examples: I believe in you, man! You can do it!
I believe in America. America has made my fortune and I raised my daughter in the American fashion.
Ambassador Udina: The other species are scared. They've never faced anything like this before and they don't know what to do. They want us to step forward. They believe in humanity because of you.
Ambassador Udina: Your ruthless pursuit of Saren and the geth, your defiance of the Council -- that's what humans are capable of! That's how we can defeat the Reapers!
Ambassador Udina: The others will follow us, Shepard. They know we're their only hope. We will have a human Council with a human Chairman.
Antonyms: disbelieve
doubt
mistrust
distrust
suspect
Related words: belief
disbelief
Derived words: believability
believable
believe it or not
believe me
believe one's ears
believe one's eyes
believe one's own eyes
believer
believe you me
believing is seeing
believingly
be unable to believe one's eyes
disbelieve
do you believe in God
forebelieve
I'll believe it when I see it
make believe
make-believe
misbelieve
nonbelieving
rebelieve
seeing is believing
unbelievable
unbelieve
unbelieved
unbeliever
would you believe
would you believe it
you better believe it
you'd better believe it
Translations: