apprehension

apprehension — noun

1. an uneasy feeling that something bad or difficult is coming, often mixed with qu

1.nounC1
Definition

an uneasy feeling that something bad or difficult is coming, often mixed with quiet dread — for example, the tight feeling in your stomach the night before a big exam, surgery, or moving to a new country.

Example

Mei felt a growing apprehension about her first day at the new school.

apprehension about + noun phrase

There was real apprehension among the staff that the office would close by summer.

apprehension that + clause

Common collocations
  • growing apprehension
  • feel apprehension
  • with some apprehension
  • knot of apprehension
  • apprehension about the future
Synonyms
  • anxiety

    broader and more clinical; can describe a long-term mental state, not just one event.

  • unease

    milder; vague discomfort without a clear cause.

  • dread

    stronger and darker; suggests near-certainty that something bad will happen.

  • trepidation

    formal; nervous hesitation when facing a specific task or moment.

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

apprehension about + noun

apprehension that + clause

Usage Note

Subject is usually a person or group; the trigger is named with 'about' or a 'that'-clause. Distinguish from sense 2 (CATCHING) and sense 3 (UNDERSTANDING) — only this sense describes a feeling.

Common Mistakes

I have an apprehension to fly.
I have some apprehension about flying.
use 'about + -ing', not 'to + verb'.
She felt apprehensions before the test.
She felt apprehension before the test.
usually uncountable in this sense.

2. the action by police or another authority of stopping a person who is breaking t

2.nounC1
Definition

the action by police or another authority of stopping a person who is breaking the law and taking that person into custody — used in news reports, court documents, and official statements rather than everyday speech.

Example

The apprehension of the suspect took place near a small park in central Taipei.

the apprehension of + noun (formal frame)

Officer Yara was praised for the swift apprehension of the two robbers.

Common collocations
  • the apprehension of a suspect
  • swift apprehension
  • lead to the apprehension of
  • following the apprehension of
Synonyms
  • arrest

    the everyday and most common word for the same action.

  • capture

    stresses physically taking hold of someone, often after a chase.

  • seizure

    even more formal; can also apply to property, not only people.

Antonyms
  • release

    letting a held person go free.

  • escape

    the person getting away before being held.

Grammar Patterns

the apprehension of + noun

Usage Note

Almost always uncountable and almost always followed by 'of + person'. Frequent in news and legal writing; in conversation, people say 'arrest' or 'catching'. Distinguish from sense 1 by domain (law / police, not feeling).

Common Mistakes

The police did an apprehension yesterday.
The police made an arrest yesterday.
in this legal sense, native speakers prefer 'arrest' in casual contexts.

3. the mental act of taking in an idea and seeing what it really means — the kind o

3.nounC1
Definition

the mental act of taking in an idea and seeing what it really means — the kind of clear inner picture you form after reading a difficult passage or hearing a teacher explain a tricky concept.

Example

Her quick apprehension of the math problem surprised the whole class.

apprehension of + noun (intellectual grasp)

Mei reread the final stanza twice, hoping for a clearer apprehension of the poet's image.

Common collocations
  • quick apprehension
  • slow apprehension
  • apprehension of the truth
  • apprehension of meaning
Synonyms
  • understanding

    the everyday word; works in any register.

  • grasp

    stresses successfully holding a difficult idea in mind.

  • comprehension

    common in education contexts (reading comprehension); slightly less formal than 'apprehension'.

  • perception

    the way someone sees or interprets something, not just whether they understand.

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

apprehension of + noun

Usage Note

Formal and a bit literary; common in academic and philosophical writing about thinking, perception, and learning. Distinguish from sense 1 (a feeling) and sense 2 (an arrest); here the focus is purely mental understanding.

Common Mistakes

I have a good apprehension of English.
I have a good understanding of English.
for ordinary skill or knowledge, native speakers say 'understanding' or 'grasp'.

Word family

  • apprehend
    verbC2
  • apprehensive
    adjectiveC1
  • apprehensively
    adverbC2
  • apprehensiveness
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All five words describe nervous feelings about something ahead, but they differ in intensity, scope, and tone. 'Apprehension' is fairly formal and points at a specific event — a meeting, a result, a journey — that the speaker expects might go badly. 'Anxiety' is broader and more clinical; it can describe a single worry or a long-running mental state, and is the word doctors use. 'Dread' is the darkest and heaviest; you dread something you almost expect to be terrible, like a funeral or a serious diagnosis. 'Trepidation' sounds literary and gentle, often paired with action: 'with some trepidation, she opened the letter.' 'Unease' is the vaguest — a quiet sense that something is wrong without a clear cause. So a student before an exam feels apprehension or trepidation; a patient awaiting biopsy results feels dread; a person with a panic disorder lives with anxiety; a guest in an unfamiliar house feels unease.

apprehension ↗anxiety ↗dread ↗trepidationunease

Common collocations

Nouns

  • a sense of apprehension
  • a feeling of apprehension
  • a knot of apprehension

Adverbs

  • with some apprehension
  • with growing apprehension
  • with considerable apprehension

Phrases

  • full of apprehension
  • free from apprehension
  • lead to the apprehension of

Prepositions

  • apprehension about
  • apprehension of
  • apprehension over
  • in apprehension of

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

'Apprehension' came into English in the late 1300s through Old French from the Latin verb 'apprehendere', meaning 'to seize or grasp'. The word's three modern senses all branch from that single image of taking hold: physically taking hold of a person became 'arrest'; mentally taking hold of an idea became 'understanding'; and the inner act of grasping at a future danger became 'fearful expectation'. English borrowed all three meanings from medieval Latin and French and kept them together, which is why one word now covers feelings, police work, and thinking.