Belief, n.
Etymology: [OE. bileafe, bileve; cf. AS. geleáfa. 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.
2 more senses
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.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for belief; he lists it under doctrine, faith, fancy, idea.
Where he writes about it:
A doctrine or dogma is a statement of some one item of belief; a creed is a summary of doctrines or dogmas. — from doctrine
Dogma has commonly, at the present day, an offensive signification, as of a belief arrogantly asserted. — from doctrine
Tenet is simply that which is held, and is applied to a single item of belief; it is a neutral word, neither approving nor condemning; we speak of the doctrines of our own church; of the tenets of others. — from doctrine
A precept relates not to belief, but to conduct. — from doctrine
Belief, as an intellectual process, is the acceptance of some thing as true on other grounds than personal observation and experience. — from faith
Belief is stronger than credence; credence might be described as a prima facie belief; credence is a more formal word than belief, and seems to imply somewhat more of volition; we speak of giving credence to a report, but not of giving belief. — from faith
Conviction is a belief established by argument or evidence; assurance is belief beyond the reach of argument; as, the Christian's assurance of salvation. — from faith
In religion, a doctrine is a statement of belief regarding a single point; a creed is a summary statement of doctrines. — from faith