premise

[prem-is]

noun

1. Logic.,  Also premiss. a proposition supporting or helping to support a conclusion.

   Synonyms: postulate, assumption

2. premises,

   1. a tract of land including its buildings.

   2. a building together with its grounds or other appurtenances.

   3. the property forming the subject of a conveyance or bequest.

3. Law.

   1. a basis, stated or assumed, on which reasoning proceeds.

   2. an earlier statement in a document.

   3. (in a bill in equity) the statement of facts upon which the complaint is based.

verb (used with object)

premised, premising 

1. to set forth beforehand, as by way of introduction or explanation.

2. to assume, either explicitly or implicitly, (a proposition) as a premise for a conclusion.

   Synonyms: hypothesize, postulate

verb (used without object)

premised, premising 

1. to state or assume a premise.

premise

noun

1. Also: premiss. logic a statement that is assumed to be true for the purpose of an argument from which a conclusion is drawn

verb

1. (when tr, may take a clause as object) to state or assume (a proposition) as a premise in an argument, theory, etc

Other Word Forms

• repremise verb

Word History and Origins

Origin of premise¹

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English premiss, from Medieval Latin praemissa, noun use of feminine of Latin praemissus, past participle of praemittere “to send before,” equivalent to prae- “before, in front, ahead,” + mittere “to send”; pre-

Word History and Origins

Origin of premise¹

C14: from Old French prémisse, from Medieval Latin praemissa sent on before, from Latin praemittere to dispatch in advance, from prae before + mittere to send

Example Sentences

The premise is that you can “remember” a vacation you never took.

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The Graham company based “En Messe” on a flimsy premise, the discovery of a page or two of sketches that Bernstein made for a proposed score he meant to write for Graham in 1988.

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Some advisers do not accept the premise that the wealth-preservation phase is simpler than all those decades of wealth accumulation.

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And then a dose of tax cuts—above all on the stamp duty charged on house purchases, but also on a form of premises tax paid by businesses, among others.

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Mathis renamed the church the Nashville Church of Christ in 2018 and claimed to have launched an online ministry, but didn’t hold church services on the premises.

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Related Words

• assertion 
• assumption 
• basis 
• ground 
• presumption 
• proposition 
• thesis