belief
n. C / Un. a strong feeling that something is true or real. You also use this word to talk about the religious or moral ideas you trust completely.
n. the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true. It frequently refers to religious or moral convictions when pluralised.
My belief in his honesty has never changed.
The team's shared belief that they could win kept them motivated during the difficult final quarter.
The philosopher argued that a justified true belief constitutes knowledge, though subsequent thinkers have proposed numerous counterexamples to challenge this classical definition.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *laubō Proto-West Germanic *laubu Old English lēafa Middle English bileve English belief From Middle English bileve, from Old English lēafa, from Proto-West Germanic laubu from Proto-Germanic laubō. Compare German Glaube (“faith, belief”). The replacement of final /v/ with /f/ is due to the analogy of noun-verb pairs with /f/ in the noun but /v/ in the verb, creating a pair belief : believe on the model of e.g. grief : grieve or proof : prove.
Often takes the preposition 'in' when expressing trust, or a 'that'-clause when stating a specific proposition.