leap of faith
- noun
- /lip əv feɪθ/
- Informal
- All right, so five years ago you inspired me to take a leap of faith and build my own business.
He's making leaps of faith back to Hanson.
- He's making leaps of faith back to Hanson.
- People not being afraid to take a leap of faith.
- But it's hard to see that until you take that leap of faith.
- The man decided to take a leap of faith.
- And any creation, any act of creation is a leap of faith.
- Yes, the story may play out badly at the end, but when it was real, it was real and you made the courageous leap of faith into a new relationship.
- Anything else you want to leave people with, Continue to follow your heart and take leaps of faith and I believe in you.
- And although it was a leap of faith, the reason why I did that was because I felt stuck, I felt held back.
- But to have that leap of faith, I was tired of being told no.
Examples
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The fact is that each one feels like a terrifying leap of faith.
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To start your own business, you often need to take a leap of faith into the unknown.
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But to have that leap of faith, I was tired of being told no.
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And although it was a leap of faith, the reason why I did that was because I felt stuck, I felt held back.
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I just felt like taking a leap of faith.
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Listen, what we did was crazy-- we know that-- but, you know, it was just truly a leap of faith.
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In the end, doing the impossible for God will take a leap of faith.
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I'm asking you to take a leap of faith.
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When her boys were teens, she quit her job and took a leap of faith to write more seriously.
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My decision to go to Guatemala this summer was a leap of faith from fear to faith.
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Synonyms
An action or decision you make because you trust something without proof
Antonyms
How Risky
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'leap' (a jump or sudden move) with 'faith' (trust), so a learner who knows both words can plausibly infer a metaphorical ‘jump’ taken on trust — i.e., doing something despite uncertainty. However, the expression encodes a non-literal, idiomatic nuance about risk and commitment that is metaphorical rather than strictly compositional, so it is not fully predictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Leap of faith comes from the simple image of making a big jump: a leap across a gap while trusting, or using your faith, that you will land even though you cannot see the other side. So, it means 'to try something risky or uncertain because you trust it will work'.