English → Latin
“comprehension” in Latin
comprehēnsiōa seizing, taking hold of, catching; arrest, apprehension; a comprehension, perception, idea, understanding; an expressicapiōto take, to capture, to catch, to seize, to take captive, to storm; to take on, adopt; to hold, to containintellegentiaintelligence, the power of discernment; understanding, knowledge; taste, skill, the capacity to be a connoisseurprūdēnswise, prudent; skilful, knowledgeable (in a specific matter)ingeniuminnate or natural quality, natural character; nature; disposition, temper, inclination; intelligence, natural capacityintellegōto understand, comprehend, realize, come to know; to perceive, discern, see, observe, recognise; feel, noticepartiōto share, part, apportion; divide, distribute
The English word comprehension itself goes back to Latin prehendō, through comprehēnsiō.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
comprehension
comprehensio (act of seizing mentally): captus (power of comprehension: e.g., ut est captus hominum, Cic., Tusc: 2, 27, 65, Klotz.: or ut captus est Germanorum, Caes., B.G., 4, 3, Herzog: But captus alone is never = ingenium, prudentia, etc.): vis percipiendi: intelligentia (the power of comprehending anything = understanding, intellect, intelligence, insight, post-Augustan, intellectus): intelligendi prudentia, or prudentia only (the intellectual powers, as faculty of comprehending anything rightly, and the clear insight, acquired by them, into the essence or nature of things, Vid: Cic., De Or., 1, 20, 30, and Partit. Or., 8, 29): ingenium (the mental capacities, mental powers in general, the faculties, the head): quick comprehension, celeritas percipiendi: celeritas ingenii; adapted to common comprehension, ad commune judicium popularemque sententiam accommodatus (or accommodate = in a manner adapted, etc.): To go beyond one’s comprehension, fugere intelligentiae nostrae vim: to sharpen the comprehension, or make it acute, ingenium or intelligendi prudentiam acuere: to adapt one’s self to the comprehension of ordinary men, sensum ad communem vulgaremque se accommodare: of one’s hearers, ad intelligentiam auditorum descendere: se summittere ad mensuram discentium: not to be above the comprehension of ordinary men, intelligentia a vulgari non remotum esse.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for comprehension?
- The usual Latin words for “comprehension” are comprehēnsiō, capiō, intellegentia; also prūdēns, ingenium, intellegō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.