faith

English Online Dictionary. What means faith‎? What does faith mean?

English

Alternative forms

• feith, feithe, fayth, faythe, faithe (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English faith (also fay), borrowed from Old French fei, feid, from Latin fidem. Displaced native Old English ġelēafa, which was also the 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 recharacterisation of a French form like fay, fey, fei with the same suffix, thus making the word equivalent to fay +‎ -th.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feɪθ/
• Rhymes: -eɪθ

Noun

faith (countable and uncountable, plural faiths)

1. A trust or confidence in the intentions or abilities of a person, object, or ideal from prior empirical evidence.
2. A conviction about abstractions, ideas, or beliefs, without empirical evidence, experience, or observation.
4. A religious or spiritual belief system.
5. An obligation of loyalty or fidelity and the observance of such an obligation.

6. (obsolete) Credibility or truth.
   • 1784-1810, William Mitford, History of Greece

     the faith of the foregoing […] narrative

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:faith.

Synonyms

• (knowing, without direct observation, based on indirect evidence and experience, that something is true, real, or will happen): belief, confidence, trust, conviction
• (system of religious belief): religion

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adverb

faith (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Alternative form of in faith (“really, truly”)

Interjection

faith

1. (obsolete) Short for by my faith.

References

• “faith”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• faith in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• “faith”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “faith”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• hatif

Old Irish

Noun

faith m

1. Alternative spelling of fáith

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vai̯θ/

Adjective

faith

1. Soft mutation of maith.

Mutation