COMPREHENSION, noun 1. The act or quality of comprehending, or containing; a comprising. In the Old Testament there is a close comprehension of the New; in the New, an open discovery of the Old. 2. An including or containing within a narrow compass; a summary; an epitome or compend. This wise and religious aphorism in the text, is the sum and comprehension of all the ingredients of human happiness. 3. Capacity of the mind to understand; power of the understanding to receive and contain ideas; capacity of knowing. The nature of spirit is not within our comprehension 4. In rhetoric, a grope or figure, by which the name of a whole is put for a part, or that of a part for a whole, or a definite number for an indefinite.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI