faith
part of speech
noun (faith, mostly uncountable; a faith, faiths)
meaning for a pupil
1) Faith is a strong trust or belief in someone or something, even without proof. tree →
2) A faith is a religion, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism. tree →
3) Faith is belief in God or gods. tree →
4) Faith can also be an old exclamation meaning "indeed". tree →
sense in the lessons
In religious education lessons pupils learn about different faiths and respect them; in stories characters keep faith in a friend or lose faith when let down. Phrases: «have faith in», «lose faith», «keep the faith», «people of all faiths», «in good faith» (honestly).
examples
- I have faith in my team; we can win. tree →
- People of many faiths live in our town. tree →
- Don't lose faith; keep practising. tree →
- The class learned about the Sikh faith. tree →
- She did it in good faith, meaning to help. tree →
- His faith is very important to him. tree →
- Dad has a lot of faith in his old car. tree →
- "Faith, you've been quicker than we have." tree →
note
Mostly uncountable; countable when it means a religion: «different faiths». Adjective: «faithful». Science is based on evidence, not on faith; but people use the word for trust too. Respect other people's faiths even if you believe differently.
In the corpora
- Mocking what someone holds dear, such as their faith, to upset them is unkind.
- Faith is so happy she cries.
- The Mughal emperor Akbar, who ruled from 1556 to 1605, expanded the empire and welcomed people of different faiths to his court.
- Both sides in the Crusades did brave things and cruel things, and ordinary people of all three faiths suffered.
- People have always belonged to many groups at once: family, village, people, faith, country and the world.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «faith» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.