faith
Meanings
Plural: faiths
Noun
- a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny
- "he lost his faith but not his morality"
- complete confidence in a person or plan etc
- "he cherished the faith of a good woman"
- an institution to express belief in a divine power
- "a member of his own faith contradicted him"
- loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person
- "keep the faith"
- "they broke faith with their investors"
- A trust or confidence in the intentions or abilities of a person, object, or ideal from prior empirical evidence.
- A conviction about abstractions, ideas, or beliefs, without empirical evidence, experience, or observation.
- A religious or spiritual belief system.
- An obligation of loyalty or fidelity and the observance of such an obligation.
- Credibility or truth.
Adv
- Alternative form of in faith (“really, truly”).
Intj
- Ellipsis of by my faith.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English faith (also fay), borrowed from Old French fei, feid, from Latin fidem. 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 recharacterisation of a French form like fay, fey, fei with the same suffix. Compare Champenois fiate, fiaite, showing the same preservation of the final consonant.
Synonyms
belief, confidence, conviction, organized religion, religion, religious belief, system of religious belief, trust
Scrabble Score: 11
faith is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordfaith is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
faith is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary