Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Belief \Be*lief"\, n. [OE. bileafe, bileve; cf. AS. gele['a]fa.
   See {Believe}.]
   1. Assent to a proposition or affirmation, or the acceptance
      of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without
      immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or
      testimony; partial or full assurance without positive
      knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction;
      confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our
      senses.

            Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest
            suspicion to the fullest assurance.   --Reid.

   2. (Theol.) A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith.

            No man can attain [to] belief by the bare
            contemplation of heaven and earth.    --Hooker.

   3. The thing believed; the object of belief.

            Superstitious prophecies are not only the belief of
            fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men. --Bacon.

   4. A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of
      any class of views; doctrine; creed.

            In the heat of persecution to which Christian belief
            was subject upon its first promulgation. --Hooker.

   {Ultimate belief}, a first principle incapable of proof; an
      intuitive truth; an intuition. --Sir W. Hamilton.

   Syn: Credence; trust; reliance; assurance; opinion.

Source : WordNet®

belief
     n 1: any cognitive content held as true [ant: {unbelief}]
     2: a vague idea in which some confidence is placed; "his
        impression of her was favorable"; "what are your feelings
        about the crisis?"; "it strengthened my belief in his
        sincerity"; "I had a feeling that she was lying" [syn: {impression},
         {feeling}, {notion}, {opinion}]