Meaning of belief in English

belief

noun [ C or S or U ]

/bɪˈliːf/ us

/bɪˈliːf/

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the feeling of being certain that something exists or is true:

His belief in God gave him hope during difficult times.

Recent scandals have shaken many people's belief in (= caused people to have doubts about) politicians.

something that you believe:

All religious and political beliefs should be respected equally.

[ + that ] It is my (firm) belief that nuclear weapons are immoral.

He called at her house in the belief that (= confident that) she would lend him the money.

beyond belief

too bad, good, difficult, etc. to be imagined:

The brutality of the murders was beyond belief.

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His battle against cancer has strengthened his belief in God.
He restated his belief that the sanctions need more time to work.
Their working system is based on the belief that people work more productively in a team.
People should have the courage to stand up for their beliefs.
I don't want them to impose their religious beliefs on my children.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Believing

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Opinions, beliefs and points of view

(Definition of belief from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

belief | American Dictionary

belief

noun [ C/U ]

/bɪˈlif/

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the feeling of being certain that something exists or is true:

[ C ] philosophical beliefs

[ C ] He made no secret of his belief that she was guilty.

[ U ] I have no belief in magic.

(Definition of belief from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of belief

belief

In doing so, the agent should retain more preferred beliefs in favor of less preferred ones wherever coherence permits.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Take the three-person game introduced above and suppose the players' beliefs are as specified.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Note also that the players hold correct beliefs about their own choices throughout.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

With pretense, disguise, and unreflective belief in disinterested philosophical analysis, philosophers can easily objectify the interests of certain power groups, whether scientific or political.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Assertives engage the speaker regarding the truth of the statement he/she is making : the psychological state being expressed is a belief.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Name training either taught some children that novel names should be mapped onto novel kinds or enhanced their commitment to this belief.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Perception-based beliefs teract, and par ticularly how are the symbolic and procedural representations made compatible?

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It just would not thereby have this belief as one of its beliefs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Most philosophers and psychologists shared the firm belief that their disciplines were substantially different in some ways.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Early training programs in cultural competence tended to rely on categorical constructs that lumped patients together by their "typical" cultural values, customs, and beliefs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This is unlikely on the rest of my basic beliefs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Alternatively, understanding false belief may be enhanced, but more modestly.

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It is not breakable and fragile like a belief waiting for the iconoclast's hammer.

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It is where both strength and freedom of will reside, and our beliefs about it have practical effects on self- and social control.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both are predicated on a belief in art's representative powers, and yet both rely on the abstracting and deeply hierarchic aesthetics of military art.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.