Other forms: faiths
Faith is complete trust in someone or something, held even when nothing proves it right. You keep faith in a friend who has gone quiet, in a doctor you met ten minutes ago, in a plan that nobody else likes.
It is stronger than belief, and it does not wait for evidence — have faith is what people say when no proof is coming. The religious half of the word is just as common: the Christian faith, people of all faiths, losing your faith at twenty. Faith takes IN, so it is faith in him, faith in the system. In contracts and courts the word turns technical: acting in good faith means acting honestly, bad faith means the opposite, and a judge can rule on which one it was. The related adjective faithful means loyal, and about a partner it means one thing only.
1nounfaithComplete trust in someone or something, held without proof.~2%
“She kept her faith in him long after the others gave up.”
synonyms: trust, confidence
2nounbeliefBelief in a god or gods.~77%
“He lost his faith in his twenties and never went back.”
3nounparticularA particular religion.~19%
“Children of several faiths share the same playground.”
4nounhonestHonest intention, especially in the phrase in good faith.~2%
“They negotiated in good faith and expected the same in return.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 10 sentences found in the wild and placed 10 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
faith is a kind of trust.
Faith arrived from Old French foi, from Latin fides. It pushed aside the native Old English word gelefa, which was the older English word for belief. So English ended up holding two words for nearby ideas, one borrowed and one homegrown, and quietly gave them different work.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰeydʰ-
Latin
fidēs
Old French
foi
Middle English
feith
English, today
faith
From Middle English feith (also fay), borrowed from Old French foi, from Latin fidēs. a doublet of foy. Displaced native Old English ġelēafa, which was also a word for belief.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA