# "comprehension" seems like an awkward word choice
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781
**Category:** New to Julia
**Created:** [September 30, 2025, 9:07am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781 "2025-09-30T09:07:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tigerbyte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tigerbyte)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 9:07am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/1 "2025-09-30T09:07:42Z")
In Julia, an item like:
[x_x for x in 1:5]
is called a “comprehension” and results in a Vector as in:
**julia\>** [x_x for x in 1:5]
5-element Vector{Int64}:
1
4
9
16
25
Not even sure what the word “comprehension” means except for
“something that is or can be comprehended”. Maybe?
I think what was needed is a word that means
“to assemble multiple pieces into a larger item” like maybe
• conglomeration
• amalgamation
• compilation
• composition
• accumulation
---
### Author:  [@greatpet](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/greatpet)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 9:13am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/2 "2025-09-30T09:13:54Z")
“List comprehension” has been used since 1977. It’s not specific to Julia.
> **[List comprehension](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_comprehension)**
>
> A list comprehension is a syntactic construct available in some programming languages for creating a list based on existing lists. It follows the form of the mathematical set-builder notation (set comprehension) as distinct from the use of map and filter functions.
> Consider the following example in mathematical set-builder notation.
> or often
> This can be read, "
>
>
>
> S
>
>
> {\\displaystyle S}
>
> is the set of all numbers "2 times
>
>
>
> x
>
> ...
---
### Author:  [@cormullion](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cormullion)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 9:28am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/3 "2025-09-30T09:28:20Z")
The word “comprehensive” means “includes lots of things”, as in “a comprehensive study of..” so the word is quite suitable.
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### Author:  [@Tigerbyte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tigerbyte)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 9:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/4 "2025-09-30T09:50:01Z")
Thanks for looking into it and providing the info. Oddly, the word “comprehension” means “understanding things” and carries no connotations of including things as
does the word comprehensive.
Seems like comprehensive and comprehension are two words like “allusion” and “illusion” – they sound similar and are spelled similarly but actually have no relation to each other. That might be what led us down this path.
---
### Author:  [@Tigerbyte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tigerbyte)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 10:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/5 "2025-09-30T10:03:18Z")
comprehensive and comprehension seem to share some Latin roots. not obvious, but not unreasonable word choice.
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### Author:  [@langestefan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/langestefan)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/6 "2025-09-30T12:47:54Z")
It comes from set builder notation, which is also called ‘set comprehension’. The word comphrension indeed came from Latin, in the [dictionary](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=comprehendere&la=la&can=comprehendere1&prior=fuerunt) it says ‘to bind together, unite’. Seems like a fitting name!
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### Author:  [@stephancb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stephancb)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 1:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/7 "2025-09-30T13:05:05Z")
According to another [free dictionary](https://www.thefreedictionary.com/comprehension) the noun “comprehension” can mean:
```julia-auto
1. the act or capacity of understanding
2. the state of including or comprising something; comprehensiveness
...
```
The 2nd meaning seems to be relevant here.
---
### Author:  [@sgaure](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sgaure)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/8 "2025-09-30T13:37:24Z")
The word came out of the muddy waters of set theory’s birth a hundred years ago or more. Though, nowadays it’s more usual to call it “separation” or “replacement”, depending on … things.
> **[Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory | Axiom schema of specification (or of separation, or of restricted comprehension)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo%E2%80%93Fraenkel_set_theory#Axiom_schema_of_specification_(or_of_separation,_or_of_restricted_comprehension))**
>
> Subsets are commonly constructed using set builder notation. For example, the even integers can be constructed as the subset of the integers
>
>
>
>
> Z
>
>
>
> {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {Z} }
>
> satisfying the congruence modulo predicate
>
>
>
> x
> ≡
> 0
>
>
> (
> mod
>
> 2
> )
>
>
>
> {\\displaystyle x\\equiv 0{\\pmod {2}}}
>
> :
> In general, the subset of a...
---
### Author:  [@mbauman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbauman)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/9 "2025-09-30T13:38:49Z")
If it makes you feel any better, you could try mentally replacing the word “comprehension” with the phrase “collected generator” everywhere. That’s _exactly_ what comprehensions are in Julia — and the latter matches our typical English language usages much more closely.
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/10 "2025-09-30T15:53:57Z")
In Latin languages (Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French at least), “comprehend” can mean both “understand” or, less frequently, “contain”. Oddly, I think in none of them “comprehension” is used with the container meaning.
(just a curiosity).
---
### Author:  [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/11 "2025-09-30T16:06:49Z")
In Portuguese, the second meaning of _compreensão_ is “the ability to contain within oneself, in one’s nature, or in a category, in a system.”
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### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/12 "2025-09-30T17:02:07Z")
Never heard anyone using it in that context 😄. We do use “compreender” in the sense of containing, but “compreensão”, honestly, never seen it.
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### Author:  [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 5:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/13 "2025-09-30T17:27:15Z")
I agree that the verb with the same origin is routinely used to also mean to include, while the noun has that meaning in more technical contexts, such as set theory.
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### Author:  [@goerz](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/goerz)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/14 "2025-09-30T17:51:01Z")
Welcome (the OP) to the world of mathematics, where words sometimes have specialized and unintuitive meanings 😉
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### Author:  [@Tigerbyte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tigerbyte)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2025, 12:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/15 "2025-10-03T12:16:58Z")
In the online Oxford, the meaning you are referring to (" the state of including or comprising something; comprehensiveness ") is marked as “archaic”
(like: thee, thou, and methinks).
COMPREHENSION
=============
1. the action or capability of understanding something.
“some won’t have the least comprehension of what I’m trying to do”
Similar:
understanding
ability to understand
grasp
grip
conception
apprehension
cognition
cognizance
ken
knowledge
awareness
perception
discernment
interpretation
Opposite:
ignorance
incomprehension
1. ARCHAIC
inclusion.
…
Methinks it might encourage the acceptance of Julia if the words made sense to those not trained in the use of archaic verbage. ((Just trying to help))
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### Author:  [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2025, 1:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/16 "2025-10-03T13:41:19Z")
Using the term comprehension doesn’t seem to have had too severe consequences to the acceptance of Python, so I think Julia can cope.
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### Author:  [@Wispy](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Wispy)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2025, 8:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/comprehension-seems-like-an-awkward-word-choice/132781/17 "2025-10-29T08:43:43Z")
A related discussion on Stack Exchange: [What is the meaning of comprehension in the term “list comprehension”?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/406684/what-is-the-meaning-of-comprehension-in-the-term-list-comprehension)