Hypertext Webster Gateway: "belief"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Belief \Be*lief"\, n. [OE. bileafe, bileve; cf. AS. gele['a]fa.
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.) 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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
belief
n 1: any cognitive content held as true [ant: {unbelief}]
2: a religious doctrine that is proclaimed as true without
proof [syn: {dogma}, {tenet}]
3: 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" [syn: {impression},
{feeling}, {notion}, {opinion}]
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