faith
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English faith (also fay), borrowed from Old French fei, feid, from Latin fidem. Doublet of foy. Displaced native Old English ġelēafa, which was also a word for belief.
* Old French had [θ] as a final devoiced allophone of /ð/ from lenited Latin /d/; this eventually fell silent in the 12th century. The -th of the Middle English forms is most straightforwardly accounted for as a direct borrowing of a French [θ]. However, it has also been seen as arising from alteration of a French form with -d under influence of English abstract nouns in the suffix -th (e.g., truth, ruth, health, etc.), or as a recharacterization of a French form like fay, fey, fei with the same suffix. Compare Champenois fiate, fiaite, showing the same preservation of the final consonant.
Inflected forms:
form: faiths
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: feith
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: feithe
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: fayth
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: faythe
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: faithe
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A trust or confidence in the intentions or abilities of a person, object, or ideal from prior empirical evidence.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The faithfulness of Old Faithful gives us faith in it.
I have faith in the goodness of my fellow man.
Have faith in him, buddy.
You need to have faith in yourself, that you can overcome your shortcomings and become a good person.
For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty and union, and in our own Union. We believe that every man must someday be free. And we believe in ourselves.
That is the mistake that our enemies have always made. In my lifetime--in depression and in war--they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not see or that they could not even imagine. It brought us victory. And it will again.
[…]with a mentality anchored in a profoundly influential and persistent hostility to central features of the Enlightment faith in the theoretical and practical autonomy of the human subject.
gloss: A conviction about abstractions, ideas, or beliefs, without empirical evidence, experience, or observation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: I have faith that my prayers will be answered.
I have faith in the healing power of crystals.
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
We have but faith: we cannot know;
⁠For knowledge is of things we see
⁠And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.
gloss: A religious or spiritual belief system.
pos: noun
tags: countable
metonymically
uncountable
examples: The Christian faith.
We seek justice for the Indo-European Folk Faith; what's wrong in our literature for that?
Gradually I realized that I needed a faith to rely on.
gloss: An obligation of loyalty or fidelity and the observance of such an obligation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: He acted in good faith to restore broken diplomatic ties after defeating the incumbent.
gloss: Credibility or truth.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: 1784-1810, William Mitford, History of Greece
the faith of the foregoing […] narrative
Synonyms: system of religious belief
Related words: affidavit
bide
fidelity
Derived words: act of faith
antifaith
article of faith
Attic faith
bad faith
blind faith
by my faith
cupboard faith
faith and begorra
faith-based
faithbreach
faithbreaker
faith can move mountains
faith-cure
faithectomy
faithed
faitheism
faitheist
faithful
faithfully
faithfulness
faithhead
faith-healer
faith healer
faith healing
faithing
faithism
faithist
faithless
faith-lift
faithly
faith supper
faith will move mountains
faithwise
faithworthy
faithy
full faith and credit
good faith
i' faith
in faith
interfaith
intrafaith
keep faith
keep the faith
leap of faith
misfaith
multi-faith
multifaith
nonfaith
oh me of little faith
oh ye of little faith
O me of little faith
O ye of little faith
profession of faith
Punic faith
punic faith
seed-faith
take on faith
unfaith
word of faith
ye of little faith
Translations: