Dictionary

presupposition en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /pɹiː.sʌ.pəˈzɪ.ʃ(ə)n/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle French présupposition, from Latin praesuppositio, from the past participle stem of praesuppōnere (“to presuppose”).

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) An assumption made beforehand; a preliminary conjecture or speculation.
   • He made one cardinal error in his presuppositions about the relation between language and perception, but in this he was far from alone. 2010, Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass, Arrow, published 2011, page 40:
2. (countable, uncountable) The act of presupposing.
3. (countable, uncountable) An assumption or belief implicit in an utterance or other use of language.
   • For instance: a verb might convey someone's evaluation of it as a presupposition. To say ‘they deprived him of a visit to his parents’ presupposes that he wanted to visit (vs. ‘spare him a visit...’). 1971, Paul Kiparsky, Carol Kiparsky, “Fact”, in Danny Steinberg, Leon Jakobovits, editors, Semantics: An Interdisciplinary Reader in Philosophy, Linguistics and Psychology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 351:

Forms

Deriveds

presuppositional · presuppositionless

Synonyms

conjecture (assumption) · assumption (assumption)

Translations (29)

pt pressuposição (act of presupposing) · it presupposizione (act of presupposing) · nl veronderstelling (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · ca pressuposició (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · it assunzione (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · it congettura (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · it presupposto (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · is forsenda (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · de Annahme (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · nl veronderstelling (act of presupposing) · fr présupposition (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · es presuposición (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · pt pressuposto (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · pt pressuposição (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · nl aanname (act of presupposing) · cmn 前提 (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · vi tiền giả định (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · pl antycypacja (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · cmn 預設 /预设 (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · nl (het) veronderstellen (act of presupposing) · hi पूर्वमान्यता (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · ca suposició (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · nl aanname (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · nl (het) aannemen (act of presupposing) · hu előfeltevés (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · it speculazione (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · el προϋπόθεση (act of presupposing) · el προϋπόθεση (assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof) · ca pressuposició (act of presupposing)