Etymology From Middle English understandinge, understondinge, from Old English understanding (“intelligence, understanding”), from Proto-West Germanic *undarstandingu, from Proto-Germanic *understandingō, equivalent to understand + -ing (gerund ending). Cognate with Middle Dutch onderstaninge, Middle Low German understandinge, Middle High German understandunge.
1
With of The act of one that understands or comprehends; the mental process of discernment of meaning.
There are certain things that defy human understanding.
The Ways of Heav’n are dark and intricate, Puzzled in Mazes, and perplext with Errors; Our Underſtanding traces ’em in vain, Loſt and bewilder’d in the fruitleſs Search; […]1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:
2
With of Reason or intelligence; ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge; ability to infer.
She has a solid understanding of particle physics.
It is the goneness of the Holocaust that produces the simultaneous profusion of discourses and understandings; the goneness is what opens up, what spurs, what unleashes the perpetual desire to do, to make, to rethink the Holocaust.1999, Vivian Patraka, Spectacular Suffering: Theatre, Fascism, and the Holocaust:
There is a multitude of theisms, many understandings of God, even within the same religious tradition.2002, Ross Mackenzie, Marcus J. Borg, editors, God at 2000, page 48:
2 more examples
The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
According to my understanding, the situation is quite perilous. I wonder if you see it this way, too.
Etymology From Middle English understandyng, understondynge, understondinde, undirstondend, understandande, from Old English understandende, from Proto-West Germanic *undarstandandī, from Proto-Germanic *understandandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *understandaną (“to stand between, intercede, understand”), equivalent to understand + -ing (present participle ending).
1
Showing compassion, tolerance, and forbearance; sympathetically aware.