prehend
/pɹɪˈhɛnd/
prehend verb: to perceive in the manner of Alfred North Whitehead's concept of prehension.
Verb
prehend (third-person singular simple present prehends, present participle prehending, simple past and past participle prehended)
- To perceive in the manner of Alfred North Whitehead's concept of prehension.
- Each of the four levels "prehends" the other, and so in the punning of words so frequent in hieroglyphic writing, we encounter a richer and more inclusive mode of thought than we are accustomed to.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 214
- To lay hold of; to seize.
- Here they be all three now ; prehend 'em , officersc. 1615-1617, Thomas Middleton, The Widow
Forms of prehend
| third-person singular present | prehends |
|---|---|
| present participle | prehending |
| past participle | prehended |
| past | prehended |
Origin of prehend
From Latin prehendere. See prehensile.
Words formed from prehend
Questions about prehend
- What does prehend mean?
- Prehend means to perceive in the manner of Alfred North Whitehead's concept of prehension.
- What part of speech is prehend?
- Prehend is a verb.
- How do you pronounce prehend?
- Prehend is pronounced /pɹɪˈhɛnd/.
- What is the past tense of prehend?
- The past tense of prehend is prehended.
Words near prehend in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prehend (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: “prehend.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prehend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.