Link Centre Dictionary

faith

UK/feɪθ/ US/ˈfeɪθ/ common

noun

1.

a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny

  • “he lost his faith but not his morality”
Synonyms
2.

complete confidence in a person or plan etc

  • “he cherished the faith of a good woman”
  • “the doctor-patient relationship is based on trust”
Synonyms
3.

institution to express belief in a divine power

  • “he was raised in the Baptist religion”
  • “a member of his own faith contradicted him”
Synonyms
4.

loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person

  • “keep the faith”
  • “they broke faith with their investors”

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • act of faith
  • article of faith
  • Attic faith
  • bad faith
  • blind faith
  • by my faith
  • cupboard faith
  • faith and begorra

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.