presuppose
Americanverb (used with object)
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to suppose or assume beforehand; take for granted in advance.
- Synonyms:
- presume
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(of a thing, condition, or state of affairs) to require or imply as an antecedent condition.
An effect presupposes a cause.
verb
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to take for granted; assume
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to require or imply as a necessary prior condition
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philosophy logic linguistics to require (a condition) to be satisfied as a precondition for a statement to be either true or false or for a speech act to be felicitous. Have you stopped beating your wife? presupposes that the person addressed has a wife and has beaten her
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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presupposesimple
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presupposessimple
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have presupposedperfect
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has presupposedperfect
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am presupposingprogressive
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are presupposingprogressive
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is presupposingprogressive
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have been presupposingperfect progressive
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has been presupposingperfect progressive
Past
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presupposedsimple
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had presupposedperfect
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was presupposingprogressive
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were presupposingprogressive
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had been presupposingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of presuppose
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Middle French presupposer; see pre-, suppose
Explanation
To presuppose is to take something as a given; presupposing is like assuming. When you suppose something is true, you assume it's true; to presuppose means something similar. The pre — which means "before" — is a reminder that what you're assuming is background or pretext for something else. Asking “Want soup?” presupposes someone is hungry. Asking a woman "When is the baby due?" presupposes that she’s pregnant. Presupposing can be dangerous: if your presuppositions are incorrect, you could jump to the wrong conclusion.
Vocabulary lists containing presuppose
My Antonia
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Rebecca
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: pre-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"I think that's the main thing. That doesn't presuppose the outcome of the negotiation," Carney added.
From BBC ● May 6, 2025
"Today's announcement does not presuppose or any way suggest the outcome of the investigations into the tragic incident," he said in a statement.
From Reuters ● Sep. 29, 2023
In his work on the foundations of arithmetic, Frege noted that numbers are unique in that they presuppose a way of describing the stuff they quantify.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 7, 2023
“You pick a number that doesn’t presuppose an outcome,” Chapman said.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 17, 2021
Again, all special studies presuppose certain fundamental types of things.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
Every technological system presupposes some notion of what human beings are.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
The wisdom-of-crowds argument presupposes that the masses possess some recondite knowledge that can be unlocked by allowing individuals to express themselves as part of an anonymous mob.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2026
But it also presupposes a grim reality: that some civilian deaths might be proportional.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
But for many of us, a final resting place presupposes that one has had a final living place.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2023
Because for a private citizen to become a prince presupposes virtue or Fortune, it appears that either the one or the other of these two things should partially mitigate many of the problems.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
But such arguments presupposed fairy-tale versions of families, in which a child’s sexual identity or religious affiliation never leads to exile.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 2023
They also presupposed that the symptoms reported established the existence of a genuine, novel condition akin to traumatic brain damage, only without an obvious injury.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 6, 2023
Nothing against you, but you presupposed that everyone in Paris is rich, which isn’t true.
From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2021
He emphasized that that in no way presupposed that Berman knew her killer.
From Fox News ● May 21, 2021
It presupposed a high level of military discipline and an awesome degree of obedience by subordinates to their lawful superiors It assumed that wars had a beginning and an end.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
But bundle theory allows us to make sense of a thing without presupposing a mythical form, or “something I know not what!”
From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022
But Bender says she and her colleagues are not presupposing that Overmann’s MET-based ideas are correct.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 23, 2021
The experts said the term “victim” can appear prejudicial in a court of law, heavily influencing a jury by presupposing which people have been wronged.
From New York Times ● Oct. 27, 2021
More problematic, considering current events, the story line inadvertently serves as a cautionary tale for filmmakers, underscoring the inherent challenges of presupposing a ripped-from-the-headlines timeliness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 12, 2017
The desired connection is brought about by presupposing the antithesis of the ego to libido that is so frequently claimed.
From A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Freud, Sigmund
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
