Word.ws English Dictionary

alief

alief noun: a primitive, subconscious belieflike attitude which may contradict one's conscious beliefs.

Noun

alief (countable and uncountable, plural aliefs)

  1. A primitive, subconscious belieflike attitude which may contradict one's conscious beliefs.
    • Abstract: I introduce and argue for the importance of a cognitive state that I call alief. An alief is, to a reasonable approximation, an innate or habitual propensity to respond to an apparent stimulus in a particular way.2008, TS Gendler, “Alief in action (and reaction)”, in Mind & Language
    • Simulated risk can invoke an alief of danger in subjects using a virtual environment. Alief is a concept useful in virtual training that describes situations where the person experiencing a simulated scenario knows it is not real, but suspends disbelief (willingly or unwillingly).2011, Derek Harter, Shulan Lu, Pratyush Kotturu, Devin Pierce, “An Immersive Virtual Environment for Varying Risk and Immersion for Effective Training”, in (Please provide the book title or journal...

Forms of alief

pluralaliefs

Origin of alief

Apparently formed to contrast with belief, as if it were B-lief and this were A-lief.

Words formed from alief

Questions about alief

What does alief mean?
Alief means a primitive, subconscious belieflike attitude which may contradict one's conscious beliefs.
What part of speech is alief?
Alief is a noun.
What is the plural of alief?
The plural of alief is aliefs.

Words near alief in the dictionary

  1. alidads
  2. Alidhoo
  3. Alidhuffarufinolhu
  4. Alids
  5. alie
  6. alief
  7. aliefs
  8. alien
  9. alien abduction
  10. alien abductions
  11. Alien Day

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alief (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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