Word.ws English Dictionary

believing

/bɪˈliː.vɪŋ/US/bɪˈli.vɪŋ/

believing is the present participle and gerund of believe.

Noun

believing (countable and uncountable, plural believings)

  1. The act or process of having faith, trust, or confidence in.
  2. Belief.
    • Some believings are believings with simple certainty; others are more or less uncertain; still others are believings with a reassured certainty, perhaps after a time during which they were uncertain.2004, Dermot Moran, Lester E. Embree, Phenomenology: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, volume 2, page 337

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

Forms of believing

pluralbelievings

Origin of believing

From Middle English bilevyng, belevand, bileveand, belefand, from Old English *belēfende, ġelīfende, ġelȳfende. Equivalent to believe + -ing.

From Middle English bilevinge, belewynge, equivalent to believe + -ing.

Words formed from believing

Phrases with believing

Questions about believing

What does believing mean?
Believing means the act or process of having faith, trust, or confidence in.
What is believing the present participle and gerund of?
Believing is the present participle and gerund of believe.
What part of speech is believing?
Believing is a noun.
How do you pronounce believing?
Believing is pronounced /bɪˈliː.vɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of believing?
The plural of believing is believings.

Words near believing in the dictionary

  1. believes one's ears
  2. believes one's eyes
  3. believest
  4. believeth
  5. believin'
  6. believing
  7. believing in
  8. believing is seeing
  9. believing one's ears
  10. believing one's eyes
  11. believingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: believing (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-believing.wav.

Cite this entry: “believing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/believing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.