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Glite Dictionary
to take on faith

to take on faith

1 7.1
To believe something without proof
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : aceptar a ciegas
  • Some things you just have to take on faith.

Examples

  • There are things about each one that cannot be proven and must be "taken on faith."

    Blog text (15)

  • Note that there are plenty of non-religious pieces of "woo" that fall into this category: when it comes down to it, most morality is underpinned by some assumption that is taken on faith.

    Blog text (9)

  • Some things you gotta take on faith.

    The Great Raid (2005)

  • Much like the Bible itself some things must be taken on faith.

    Nun of That (2009)

  • Some things are taken on faith, and then that faith is validated by and through experience.

    Blog text (24)

  • For example, you must take on faith that your senses of sight and touch accurately report to you the existence of your surroundings.

    Blog text (19)

  • For all his efforts to be objective, the scholar's practical activity, his very pursuit of objectivity, rests on a democratic morality whose truth or goodness is taken on faith.

    Academic text (2000)

  • But we had come through a wet mist, and the splendor that the driver assured us of (we assumed that's what he was saying) had to be taken on faith.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Some things you just have to take on faith.

  • There are some things you have to take on faith.

Synonyms

to take for granted
vsto take on faith
  • Informal
171 4.1

To believe something is true without checking it

accepts truth without needing actual proof
to take at face value
vsto take on faith
18 4.5

Believe something is true without checking it

accepts truth without needing actual proof

Antonyms

to doubt
∞ 1.3

To feel not sure about something or think it is not true

to question
777 3.5

To express doubt about whether something is true

How Certain

to believe
∞ 1.0
to take on faith
1 7.1
to assume
∞ 3.2
to suspect
925 3.6
guess
768 1.0

Surface Forms

take on faith infinitive
taking on faith present participle
takes on faith third person singular
took on faith past
taken on faith past participle

Morphology

take + on + faith

The phrase is directly compositional: 'take' in the sense 'accept', plus the prepositional phrase 'on faith' meaning 'on the basis of belief', yields 'accept without proof'. The construction (accept X on the basis of faith) is a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the meaning.

Etymology

Take on faith comes from religious use, where faith means 'trust' without proof. To take something 'on faith' is to accept it because you trust someone rather than checking, so the phrase means 'to accept without proof'.