Believe crossword clue

The most likely answers for the crossword clue “Believe” are THINK, TRUST or GUESS, with 5 letters. Below are 24 answers from 4 to 11 letters, best match first in each length, then what each top answer means and how to tell them apart.

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The best answers, explained

DENY 4 letters · verb

refuse to accept or believe

THINK 5 letters · verb

judge or regard; look upon; judge “I think he is very smart”

AFFECT 6 letters · verb

make believe with the intent to deceive

IMAGINE 7 letters · verb

expect, believe, or suppose “I imagine she earned a lot of money with her new novel”

CONSIDER 8 letters · verb

judge or regard; look upon; judge

SPECULATE 9 letters · verb

to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds

UNDERSTAND 10 letters · verb

believe to be the case “I understand you have no previous experience?”

HYPOTHESIZE 11 letters · verb

to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds

Telling them apart

With 5 squares, THINK, TRUST, GUESS, INFER, FEIGN and OPINE all fit. The second letter tells them all apart: H → THINK · R → TRUST · U → GUESS · N → INFER · E → FEIGN · P → OPINE. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 6 squares, AFFECT, RECKON and BETRAY all fit. The first letter tells them all apart: A → AFFECT · R → RECKON · B → BETRAY. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 7 squares, IMAGINE, SUPPOSE, SUSPECT, PRETEND, SWALLOW and DECEIVE all fit. The second letter settles most of it: M → IMAGINE · U → SUPPOSE, SUSPECT · R → PRETEND · W → SWALLOW · E → DECEIVE. Fill in that crossing answer first.

Other forms of this clue

Clues often use another form of the word, and the answer then takes the same form: “believed” wants an answer that ends the same way.

What “believe” means

• verb: accept as true; take to be true (“I believed his report”)
• verb: judge or regard; look upon; judge (“I believe her to be very smart”)
• verb: be confident about something (“I believe that he will come back from the war”)
• verb: follow a credo; have a faith; be a believer (“When you hear his sermons, you will be able to believe, too”)

A clue usually points at one of these senses, so the right answer is the one that matches the sense the puzzle means: check it against the crossing words.

About these answers

We match the clue against our own thesaurus and dictionary (Open English WordNet): words that mean the same as BELIEVE, and words whose definition is BELIEVE. We don't copy answers from newspaper puzzles, so a clue that leans on trivia or wordplay may need the crossing letters instead.