Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
✊ Holding tightly 🧠 Understanding 💰 Greedy
grasping

grasping

1 6.2
To understand something difficult clearly and fully
  • noun
  • /ˈɡræspɪŋ/
translation icon : comprensión
  • My point is a subtle one, which you seem to have trouble grasping.

I couldn't write a stitch of code, but I got a had a pretty good mind for grasping the business and, and, and cultural significance of this transition.

Examples

  • The same is true of that intellectual grasping of the logos, which is understanding.

    Academic text (1991)

  • My discussions with foreign country liaison officers revealed their continual grasping for some semblance of intent in the arms export policies of the United States.

    Academic text (2001)

  • There is no anxious attachment or grasping to a result.

  • Right thinking can lead to a grasping of the logos, but the task is neither easy nor unimportant.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Salvation through divine entrance into history has no meaning; rather, it derives from a grasping of the self-same trans-historical divinity within.

    Blog text (33)

  • Grasping is accomplished by either apprehension (concrete experience) or comprehension (abstract conceptualization).

    Academic text (1992)

  • In this book, Bruner argues that schooling and curricula should be constructed to foster intuitive "graspings."

    Academic text (2009)

  • Many students struggle with the grasping of complex theories in advanced mathematics.

  • Her difficulty with grasping the main concepts of the lecture became evident during the discussion.

  • Achieving a full grasping of the text requires careful reading and deep contemplation.

Synonyms

understanding
vsgrasping
871 1.1

The ability to know what something means

is the active process of getting meaning often for hard concepts
comprehension
vsgrasping
70 3.0

Ability to understand the meaning of what you read or hear

is the act of getting meaning from difficult ideas
recognition
vsgrasping
38 2.7

Becoming aware of something and understanding it clearly

is the process of getting meaning not just noticing or awareness
deep understanding
vsgrasping
9 3.7

A strong and complete knowledge of a subject or idea

is the act of getting meaning not necessarily very deep knowledge
apprehension
vsgrasping
6 5.5

Knowing what an idea or situation means

is the broader act of getting meaning not only an initial notion

Antonyms

confusion
389 1.8

A time when things are not organized and people do not know what to think or do

misunderstanding
243 1.6

When someone does not understand something correctly and this causes a problem

How Well

mastering
1 5.1
comprehension
70 3.0
grasping
1 6.2

Surface Forms

grasping singular
graspings plural

Morphology

grasping = grasp (semi-transparent) = grasp + ing

The suffix '-ing' usually forms a gerund or present participle, but here it denotes a noun form of the action, which might not be immediately clear to all learners.

Etymology

Grasping also comes from the same old word grasp meaning 'to seize', and people started using it for ideas because you 'take hold' of a thought in your mind, so a 'grasping' of a subject means real understanding.