faith
/feɪθ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.82 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A trust or confidence in the intentions or abilities of a person, object, or ideal from prior empirical evidence.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A conviction about abstractions, ideas, or beliefs, without empirical evidence, experience, or observation.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
An obligation of loyalty or fidelity and the observance of such an obligation.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The faithfulness of Old Faithful gives us faith in it."
- "I have faith in the goodness of my fellow man."
- "Have faith in him, buddy."
- "You need to have faith in yourself, that you can overcome your shortcomings and become a good person."
- "For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty and union, and in our own Union. We believe that every man must someday be free. And we believe in ourselves. That is the mistake that our enemies have always made. In my lifetime--in depression and in war--they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not see or that they could not even imagine. It brought us victory. And it will again."
- "[…]with a mentality anchored in a profoundly influential and persistent hostility to central features of the Enlightment faith in the theoretical and practical autonomy of the human subject."
Etymology
From Middle English faith (also fay), borrowed from Old French fei, feid, from Latin fidem. Doublet of foy. Displaced native Old English ġelēafa, which was also a word for belief. * Old French had [θ] as a final devoiced allophone of /ð/ from lenited Latin /d/; this eventually fell silent in the 12th century. The -th of the Middle English forms is most straightforwardly accounted for as a direct borrowing of a French [θ]. However, it has also been seen as arising from alteration of a French form with -d under influence of English abstract nouns in the suffix -th (e.g., truth, ruth, health, etc.), or as a recharacterization of a French form like fay, fey, fei with the same suffix. Compare Champenois fiate, fiaite, showing the same preservation of the final consonant.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
act of faith
article of faith
Attic faith
bad faith
blind faith
by my faith
cupboard faith
faith and begorra
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
belief
confidence
trust
conviction
system of religious belief
religion
religious belief
organized religion