Meaning & use
incomprehension
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Meaning
noununcountable
The state of not being able to understand something.
Grammar: Uncountable; no plural and no 'a' before it.
Patterns
- incomprehension at something
- incomprehension in the face of something
- a look of incomprehension
She stared at the instructions in complete incomprehension.
His incomprehension of the rules led to several mistakes.
There was a general incomprehension among the students when the teacher explained the new theory.
Common combinations
- complete incomprehension
- He listened to the lecture with complete incomprehension.
- look of incomprehension
- She gave me a look of incomprehension when I mentioned the plan.
- incomprehension at
- His incomprehension at the decision was obvious.
- express incomprehension
- The villagers expressed incomprehension at the new law.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bewilderment
- Stronger and more emotional; suggests being completely confused and overwhelmed.
- confusion
- More general; can refer to a temporary state or a mix-up, not just lack of understanding.
- misunderstanding
- Focuses on a specific failure to understand something correctly, often leading to a mistake.
Opposites
Word family
- incomprehensible adjective
- Impossible to understand.
- incomprehensibly adverb
- In a way that is impossible to understand.
- comprehend verb
- To understand something fully.
Commonly confused: incomprehension or incomprehensible?
incomprehension vs incomprehensible
This is an adjective meaning 'impossible to understand', while 'incomprehension' is the noun for the state of not understanding.
Practice
Choose the correct word: Her ___ of the technical details was clear from her blank expression.
Choose one answer.
'Incomprehension' is the noun that fits after 'Her' and before 'of'. 'Incomprehensible' is an adjective and would need a noun after it, 'incomprehensibly' is an adverb, and 'comprehend' is a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “incomprehension”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.