noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a passionate belief/conviction
▪ We had a passionate belief in what we were doing.
a strong belief
▪ We have a strong belief that everyone has the right to worship freely.
belief/faith in God
▪ About one-third of the population has no belief in God.
▪ Her faith in God helped her deal with her illness.
beyond repair/control/belief etc (=impossible to repair, control, believe etc)
▪ Scott’s equipment was damaged beyond repair.
▪ The town centre had changed beyond all recognition.
▪ Due to circumstances beyond our control, the performance has had to be cancelled.
cling to the hope/belief/idea etc (that)
▪ He clung to the hope that she would be cured.
compromise your beliefs/convictions/ideals
▪ Anti-war activists were put in prison for refusing to compromise their beliefs.
confirm you in your belief/opinion/view etc (that) (=make you believe something more strongly)
▪ The expression on his face confirmed me in my suspicions.
firm conviction/commitment/belief etc
▪ Our client hasn’t reached a firm decision on the matter yet.
implicit faith/trust/belief
▪ They had implicit faith in his powers.
popular belief/opinion
▪ Contrary to popular belief, cats are solitary animals.
religious beliefs
▪ I don’t share her religious beliefs.
share a belief/opinion
▪ It was clear that the police did not share her opinion.
subscribe to the view/belief/theory etc
▪ I have never subscribed to the view that schooldays are the happiest days of your life.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
basic
▪ Culture stems from a society or community's experience traditions, basic beliefs, aspirations and ambitions.
▪ The following basic beliefs underpin the discussion: 1.
▪ They are the basic beliefs which ground all others, our epistemological foundations.
▪ But his basic belief was so widespread that gay men themselves sometimes used it as a come-on.
▪ By sticking to his own basic beliefs about attitude and playing style.
▪ It derives from basic beliefs and traditions.
▪ This distinction between foundations and superstructure, between basic and non-basic beliefs, is a structural one.
▪ The thought of some basic beliefs being incorrigibly false is too horrific to countenance.
false
▪ He feels much of the opposition is based on the false belief that the incinerator will also handle toxic waste.
▪ A false belief may nevertheless be justified.
▪ We can not argue straightforwardly that a false belief can not be justified.
▪ Here is one of the standard procedures that is used to test whether a child has an adult-like appreciation of false belief.
▪ An alarming picture encapsulated a false belief.
▪ And they have led them under the false belief that a negotiated solution was seriously pursued.
▪ So the merger boom went on for a while, still fuelled by this false belief.
▪ Not all false beliefs are relevant in this sense.
firm
▪ What woman, in fact, however firm her beliefs, would not sacrifice her religion for her children?
▪ Fighting Organizational Behavior Patterns Strong, healthy individuals have firm convictions and beliefs.
▪ There was a firm belief among old-time ferreters that the ferrets needed to be vicious and half-starved to do their work well.
▪ The reality, according to the new spirituality, is that our beliefs about the world attract experiences which con firm those beliefs.
▪ A firm belief in the priesthood of all believers means that singing belongs to the whole congregation as well as to the choir.
general
▪ Such reports in a popular newspaper endorse a general belief in escalation.
▪ There is a general belief that police commit nearly as many crimes as they prevent or solve.
▪ The success of these individual desires not withstanding, general belief is that some form of compromise is most likely.
▪ Such a general belief system can be termed a political ideology.
▪ There is a general belief that the drowned are simply victims of bad weather in the strait.
▪ What are your general beliefs about human nature?
▪ The general belief was very slow.
mistaken
▪ This can give rise to the mistaken belief that cocaine is not an addictive drug.
▪ Cannabis may have few immediate withdrawal effects and this again may give rise to the mistaken belief that it is not addictive.
▪ Such a deeply mistaken belief can only come from a citizen of a country with a disciplinarian attitude to politics.
▪ The living turtle is then thrown back into the water, in the mistaken belief that it will re-grow its shell.
▪ We should not pursue better conditions for prisoners in the mistaken belief that improved conditions will alone produce more orderly prisons.
▪ It refers to the resurgence of manufacturing during the 1980s and the mistaken but widespread belief that manufacturing is still shrinking.
▪ The court heard that Newton had snapped in the mistaken belief that his father was about to draw a gun on him.
▪ Don't buy a hard bed in the mistaken belief that it is good for you.
personal
▪ He wanted his personal belief and his professional expertness to come out as a single attribute.
▪ When the media found out, his private exercise of his personal beliefs became a subject for public consumption.
▪ The next stage of his personal beliefs is obscure.
▪ She also remarked at the outset that her personal belief was that the category had no place in a psychiatric manual.
▪ Within our immediate group we can learn to reconcile personal and group differences to the point of rejecting personal values and beliefs.
▪ There are times when you have to put aside your personal beliefs.
▪ This knowledge is not a matter of personal belief, but of a simple historical fact.
▪ And, in rare candor under such circumstances, Chin answered two questions about his personal political beliefs.
political
▪ After thoroughly investigating their backgrounds and their political beliefs, he had approached them one by one.
▪ In each country a sample of about one thousand respondents was interviewed regarding many aspects of their individual political beliefs and actions.
▪ How we explained they interpreted and explained unemployment, and how it related to their other political beliefs and behaviour.
▪ Indeed, a political belief that is widely held might be particularly immune to careful assessment.
▪ If I have any political beliefs, they are best and quickest expressed in cliché terms.
▪ Chapter 4 will examine some of the factors that might account for differences in the political beliefs of individuals within a society.
▪ Spells in prison have never sapped his determination to fight for his political beliefs.
▪ However, any relatively complete bundle of political beliefs could be termed a political ideology.
popular
▪ Contrary to popular belief, Soviet economic sources provided rich picking for the researcher, as long as the right subject was chosen.
▪ Contrary to popular belief by many, Memorial Day is not the day summer vacation begins.
▪ Dryden's position was that popular belief in such beings was enough to justify their representation in poetry.
▪ Contrary to popular belief a preference for boys over girls is not universal.
▪ It is a popular belief that the worst horrors befall whoever invites the curse of a hijra.
▪ In general, however, it was simply reinterpreting in new language a set of ancient popular beliefs.
▪ The quality of work produced even by mathematicians appears to decline little over their careers, contrary to popular belief.
▪ Actually, contrary to popular belief, hallucinations were not part of the original definition of schizophrenia.
religious
▪ Today, there are many religious and secular beliefs open to us.
▪ Do religious beliefs provide exemption from liability for child abuse?
▪ As religious beliefs have constituted science, so scientific creeds have constituted an alternative religion.
▪ For example, must teachers and students salute the flag or follow the curriculum if doing so violates their religious beliefs?
▪ An example from the astronomical debates of the early seventeenth century may illuminate this selective role of religious belief.
▪ The Court only examined and rejected a claim based on religious beliefs of immunity from an unquestioned general rule.
▪ To pursue political objectives seriously, they must work with the very people whose religious beliefs are most antithetical to their own.
▪ But teachers, too have religious beliefs and commitments.
strong
▪ The internal conflicts caused by his strong Quaker beliefs and lack of prospects caused a breakdown when he was twenty-one.
▪ It is my strong belief that reward and recognition go hand in hand.
▪ A lot of mental patients have a strong belief in the occult listed on their personality profiles.
▪ Chagrin A strong belief in the supernatural characterises communities of Romany gypsies.
▪ Together with the Fantaisie Polonaise, it typically expresses his strong nationalistic beliefs.
▪ The whole represents a strong belief in optimism and progress.
▪ Yet so strong was the belief in a static universe that it persisted into the early twentieth century.
▪ Underlying the disquiet was a strong current of belief that the act of going tieless was tantamount to social chaos!
traditional
▪ Exploitation by charlatans played a part, as did certain traditional beliefs.
▪ The rest, hewing to more traditional belief, remained Orthodox; the Winslows were among them.
▪ Moreover, religious and patriotic works fulfilled an important role in reaffirming traditional beliefs.
▪ It also seems unlikely, despite long-held traditional belief, that the birth took place in Bethlehem.
▪ Any culture, because it has to retain traditional customs and beliefs, has to be in a sense a conservative institution.
▪ Many modernisation theorists would claim here strong evidence for the inhibiting effect of traditional beliefs on development.
▪ The growing awareness of environmental and ecological issues often coincides with traditional beliefs and practices.
▪ Thus the process of anchoring scientifically originated notions may not have such a devastating effect upon traditional beliefs.
true
▪ Why, in other words, should we want to get true beliefs rather than false ones?
▪ Yet many people remain uncertain regarding his true beliefs.
▪ There's no moral virtue in the truth of most of our true beliefs.
▪ How then do we get true beliefs by observation?
▪ The other differences between these different ways of acquiring true beliefs are irrelevant.
▪ You will give your tellee a true belief: you will actually tell the truth.
▪ Instead of looking directly for something one wants to get a true belief about, one can look instead for a sign.
widespread
▪ The findings led to a widespread belief that psychological tests were situation specific and therefore limited in their usefulness for personnel selection.
▪ It provides a startling point for a discussion of the widespread belief that Richard Nixon was a brilliant maker of foreign policy.
▪ Professor Budd's remarks echo a widespread belief in the City that the Government needs to develop a credible monetary strategy.
▪ Protestant endeavours to extinguish popular superstitions and the widespread belief in magical remedies also proved largely futile.
▪ But, despite a widespread belief, this is not due to job insecurity.
▪ Especially in the United States, a widespread belief exists that people should actively seek ways of developing themselves.
▪ There is a widespread belief that the Age of Enlightenment has run its course.
▪ It refers to the resurgence of manufacturing during the 1980s and the mistaken but widespread belief that manufacturing is still shrinking.
■ NOUN
core
▪ In healthy organizations, this core belief sys-tem serves as a source of guidance.
▪ All organizations have some sort of core belief system.
▪ If both core beliefs and the actions they inspire are healthy, the organization will ultimately succeed in achieving its long-term goals.
▪ Banished from the official organizational history, the memory of these unpleasant side effects lingers in the form of unhealthy core beliefs.
▪ Because they describe an objective reality, descriptive core beliefs are simply valid or invalid.
▪ That something is whether or not your organization has a healthy system of valid core beliefs and realistic fears.
▪ Evaluative core beliefs, however, are often highly subjective.
▪ They dwell instead on invalid core beliefs and the kinds of mythical fear that such beliefs nearly always inspire.
system
▪ One such belief system is, of course, sexism.
▪ But after a summer in Trinidad, he realized he had only scratched the surface of the eclectic and complex belief system.
▪ The Christians however seemed to be a quite different species, unlike any other foreign belief system they had yet encountered.
▪ Can you characterize your own political belief system?
▪ We attract certain people and events of our belief systems.
▪ Buddha established his belief system built around the principles of self-restraint and caring for the poor.
▪ Fundamentalism is a belief system that can not be refuted because it comes from a supreme being.
▪ An ideology is simply the elevation of a particular set of perceptions, assumptions, and analyses to a normative belief system.
■ VERB
based
▪ He feels much of the opposition is based on the false belief that the incinerator will also handle toxic waste.
▪ It is based on a threefold belief that: 1.
▪ Their support is based on a belief that the left governments have clean hands and have improved municipal services.
▪ Both said they based their beliefs on news reports describing the crash, and on their experience.
▪ If it is subjective, then it is based on the beliefs of the defendant.
▪ The Court only examined and rejected a claim based on religious beliefs of immunity from an unquestioned general rule.
▪ They are generally based on the belief in health as the result of a harmonious whole.
▪ They based their belief in part on the confession of an outlaw Navajo named Jack Crank.
confirm
▪ This tremendous progress of conventional medicine in the present century has confirmed belief in the treatment by opposites.
▪ When tomographic maps later showed a patch of warm rock beneath that spot, it further confirmed his belief.
▪ The effect of our experience was, as I shall show, to confirm and extend that belief.
▪ And many studies are flawed by the tendency of researchers to look for information that confirms their own beliefs.
▪ The watchers were quiet and soulful, as if the flames confirmed their deep beliefs about life here.
▪ Writers reached for a means suasion and began to use emotion to confirm beliefs.
▪ That pleased and flattered her, confirmed her in her belief in herself.
▪ I watch the news, and it only confirms my belief, you know?
express
▪ There is nothing glib or rhetorical about Freeman's way of expressing her beliefs.
▪ Only now the statement expresses the belief in a particular relationship.
▪ That leaves open the possibility, however, that some declarative sentences or statements are not factual and express something other than beliefs.
▪ However, the theory allows that a statement can express both a belief and an attitude.
▪ The themes used express the beliefs of the Church in a language accessible to children and teachers.
▪ Together with the Fantaisie Polonaise, it typically expresses his strong nationalistic beliefs.
hold
▪ Along with many of his contemporaries, Mercator held the Baconian belief that knowledge should be exploited for utilitarian ends.
▪ Critical assessment of long held beliefs is the first step to new interpretation of historical events and other so called scientific truths.
▪ Do you hold any specific beliefs about what might be called beauty?
▪ We are of the deeply held belief that many human beings have come to behave as materialistic tyrants.
▪ It was the commonly held belief then that never again would this communal beast be allowed to rear its head.
▪ But why should a family hold on to a belief regardless of its truth?
▪ Ten years later, his new book shows that he no longer holds such a belief.
▪ Groups of work-inhibited students may reinforce mutually held beliefs that school is a negative environment.
mistake
▪ The last fifty years of work in Al suggests that this may be a mistaken belief.
reflect
▪ The concerns of older people about their future health care probably reflect beliefs about modern medicine and priorities within the medical profession.
▪ They reflect a belief that they are working with people, not with systems.
▪ Only in a few cases, as at Brading, do they reflect any deeply held beliefs or cult practices.
▪ His reality accurately reflected his belief system.
▪ Does it reflect your belief that you are hopelessly absent-minded?
▪ Since our beliefs create our experiences, Cathy's love life faithfully reflected her mixed-up beliefs.
▪ Until recently company law, with its relative freedom from stringent regulations, reflected this national belief.
▪ This may reflect teachers' beliefs that mathematics by its nature is learned most effectively in groups of homogeneous ability.
share
▪ For Buckle, this laid the foundations for a thoroughgoing science of history, and others shared his belief.
▪ Sezer shares the military's belief in republican and secular values.
▪ All individuals with sophisticated belief systems do not necessarily share the same core beliefs.
▪ Milan coach Fabio Capello did not share the belief they would be able to play more freely now the record was gone.
▪ And it is helped immeasurably if two unrelated people can share in the belief that indeed they are already blood relatives.
▪ In consequence, both share a central belief in displaying speech as evidence.
▪ Liberals, Sowell claims, share a belief that people can improve their lives through collective effort.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a fond hope/belief
▪ That overcautious disposition was noticed long ago, but there was a fond hope that experience would cure it.
beggar description/belief
▪ Harry, that awful, awful singing beggars belief.
▪ In Gravity's Rainbow, conspiracies proliferate to such an extent that they beggar description.
▪ The initial radio message had beggared belief.
▪ The thought of la belle dame de Bruges coming out with such stuff beggars belief.
▪ The waste, deaths, brutality and destruction of property beggar description.
▪ What she found there still beggars belief.
betray your beliefs/principles/ideals etc
contrary to popular belief/opinion
▪ Contrary to popular belief, gorillas are shy and gentle creatures.
▪ Actually, contrary to popular belief, hallucinations were not part of the original definition of schizophrenia.
▪ And contrary to popular belief, we don't want to wear the trousers at home.
core values/beliefs
▪ Above all, it requires the steady cultivation of healthy core beliefs that will shore up the organization when setbacks occur.
▪ Actions are core beliefs put into practice.
▪ Banished from the official organizational history, the memory of these unpleasant side effects lingers in the form of unhealthy core beliefs.
▪ Because they describe an objective reality, descriptive core beliefs are simply valid or invalid.
▪ If both core beliefs and the actions they inspire are healthy, the organization will ultimately succeed in achieving its long-term goals.
▪ Organizational fears are emotional responses to core beliefs.
▪ That something is whether or not your organization has a healthy system of valid core beliefs and realistic fears.
▪ What made Reagan extraordinary, beyond his communicative skills, was his resolute adherence to core beliefs.
defy description/analysis/belief etc
▪ His changeable features, his tones, gestures and expressions seemed to defy descriptions.
▪ His swerve was something that defied analysis; just as it defied attempts to counter it.
▪ It defies belief and makes you question exactly who the law is protecting here: the sick minds or their young victims?
▪ Like the secret of Stradivari's varnish, this extra dimension defies analysis.
▪ The dam defied description; it defied belief.
▪ Two other women lay upon the counter a pickle-bottle and a glass vessel of a kind which altogether defies description.
▪ Yet other species exhibit variation patterns that defy analysis of the sophistication of present-day biology.
mistaken belief/idea/impression/view etc
▪ A thin, friendly man, he often gave the mistaken impression that nothing was too much trouble.
▪ Cannabis may have few immediate withdrawal effects and this again may give rise to the mistaken belief that it is not addictive.
▪ People have a mistaken idea about artists.
▪ Such a deeply mistaken belief can only come from a citizen of a country with a disciplinarian attitude to politics.
▪ That can lead to the mistaken impression that the principles do not fit businesses involved in services.
▪ The foregoing paragraphs dispose, it is hoped, of some mistaken ideas as to the state and progress of sexuality in adulthood.
▪ The most mistaken idea is that you can Xerox people and somehow clone a fully grown adult.
▪ This can give rise to the mistaken belief that cocaine is not an addictive drug.
shake sb's confidence/beliefs etc
to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Contrary to popular belief, cold weather does not make you ill.
▪ People with a strong spiritual or philosophical belief system are more likely to remain healthy.
▪ She never lost her belief in God.
▪ Their experiments were based on the belief that you could make gold from other metals.
▪ They were put in prison because of their political beliefs.
▪ We need to learn to accept people who have different beliefs from ours.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But the crucial step is to take responsibility for that belief.
▪ It is a central theme throughout the book, and she criticises frequently the Catholic beliefs and customs.
▪ This belief was obviously challenged by our presence, but he insisted that Tom and Terry had gone home.
▪ Unitarianism, a tolerant and loosely-defined system of belief, had attracted Coleridge since his Cambridge years.
▪ Whoever the commentator is, the opinions expressed are often only beliefs based on sketchy information that is only indirectly relevant.