false premise

[fawls prem-is]

noun

1. Logic.,  an incorrect proposition that, by forming the basis of an argument, will almost certainly lead to an invalid or logically unsound conclusion.

2. a lie, such as one deliberately established to support a conclusion or inference that obscures the truth.

   By devising the elaborate false premise of her inability to walk, the thief avoided suspicion for the burglaries in her building.

Word History and Origins

Origin of false premise¹

First recorded in 1600–10

Example Sentences

The idea that a resource advisor would be able to significantly inhibit a fire fight or a mop-up operation “is a false premise,” he said, “in the sense that resource advisors are just that — they are advisors. They do not make decisions, they do not lead crews, they do not tell people what to do.”

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Time-travel paradoxes rest on the false premise that events exist as revisitable locations.

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When replicated at a larger scale, this can lead to false memories—something we see everywhere from boomer Facebook groups bemoaning the disappearance of “proper binmen” to political movements that exploit these feelings of nostalgia, which essentially trade on the false premise that everything was better in the past.

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So remember this: After whipsawing the nation through his dumb and vicious shitshow of a first term, nearly capsizing the ship of state by inciting thousands of morons to riot over the false premise that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him, and becoming the first president in American history to be twice impeached, Donald Trump decided to run for president in 2024 primarily so that he might avoid facing punishment for his many alleged crimes.

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Wolff added, "It is a simple-minded argument based on the false premise that the comparably large bureaucracies of mega-corporations and governments either do not exist or do not matter."

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