BELIEF

impression, feeling, belief, notion, opinion

(noun) a vague idea in which some confidence is placed; “his impression of her was favorable”; “what are your feelings about the crisis?”; “it strengthened my belief in his sincerity”; “I had a feeling that she was lying”

belief

(noun) any cognitive content held as true

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

belief (countable and uncountable, plural beliefs)

Mental acceptance of a claim as true.

Faith or trust in the reality of something; often based upon one's own reasoning, trust in a claim, desire of actuality, and/or evidence considered.

(countable) Something believed.

• Women always take the beliefs of those around them. Better a man who loves her to have the strongest influence over her beliefs and actions than her catty girlfriends who despise her for being more attractive. ― Blair Naso

(uncountable) The quality or state of believing.

(uncountable) Religious faith.

(in the plural) One's religious or moral convictions.

Anagrams

• befile, belfie

Source: Wiktionary

Be*lief", n. Etym: [OE. bileafe, bileve; cf. AS. geleáfa. See Believe.]

1. Assent to a proposition or affirmation, or the acceptance of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or testimony; partial or full assurance without positive knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction; confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our senses. Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest suspicion to the fullest assurance. Reid.

2. (Theol.)

Definition: A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith. No man can attain [to] belief by the bare contemplation of heaven and earth. Hooker.

3. The thing believed; the object of belief. Superstitious prophecies are not only the belief of fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men. Bacon.

4. A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of any class of views; doctrine; creed. In the heat of persecution to which Christian belief was subject upon its first promulgation. Hooker. Ultimate belief, a first principle incapable of proof; an intuitive truth; an intuition. Sir W. Hamilton.

Syn.

– Credence; trust; reliance; assurance; opinion.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition