I. fath ‧ om 1 /ˈfæð ə m/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: fæthm ]
a unit for measuring the depth of water, equal to six feet or about 1.8 metres
II. fathom 2 BrE AmE ( also fathom out ) verb [transitive]
to understand what something means after thinking about it carefully SYN work out :
I still can’t fathom out what she meant.
fathom how/why/where etc
Mark couldn’t fathom why she resented him so much.
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THESAURUS
■ to understand something difficult
▪ grasp to completely understand an idea or a fact, especially a complicated one:
Some of his theories can be rather difficult for the ordinary reader to grasp.
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I don’t think Stuart really grasped the point I was making.
▪ fathom /ˈfæð ə m/ formal to understand what something means or the reasons for something, after thinking carefully about it:
She looked at him, puzzled, trying to fathom the reasons for his actions.
▪ make sense of something to understand something that is not easy to understand, especially by thinking about it:
People are still trying to make sense of the news.
▪ can’t make head nor tail of something spoken used when something seems impossible to understand:
I can’t make head nor tail of his plays, and I’m not sure that anyone else can either.