Word.ws English Dictionary

believes

UK/bɪˈliːvz/US/bɪˈlivz/

believes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of believe.

Meaning of believe

Verb

believe (third-person singular simple present believes, present participle believing, simple past and past participle believed)

  1. (transitive) To accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing).
    • If you believe the numbers, you'll agree we need change.
  2. (transitive) To accept that someone is telling the truth.
    • Why did I ever believe you?
    Synonyms:
    trust, Adam and Eve
  3. (transitive) To have been convinced by rational means to accept the truth of a proposition.
  4. (transitive) To have been influenced by arational means (such as emotional experience, the imagination of need, etc.) to accept the truth of a proposition.
  5. (intransitive) To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.
    • After that night in the church, I believed.
  6. (transitive) To opine, think, reckon.
    • Do you think this is good? —Hmm, I believe it's okay.
    Synonyms:
    hold

See all 9 meanings of believe

Phrases with believes

Words that rhyme with believes

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about believes

What is believes the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Believes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of believe.
How do you pronounce believes?
Believes is pronounced /bɪˈliːvz/ (UK).

Words near believes in the dictionary

  1. believedst
  2. believer
  3. believerdom
  4. believerhood
  5. believers
  6. believes
  7. believes in
  8. believes one's ears
  9. believes one's eyes
  10. believest
  11. believeth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: believes (page history and authors); believe (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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Cite this entry: “believes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/believes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.