presuppose
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to suppose or assume beforehand; take for granted in advance.
- Synonyms:
- presume
-
(of a thing, condition, or state of affairs) to require or imply as an antecedent condition.
An effect presupposes a cause.
verb
-
to take for granted; assume
-
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
- presupposition noun
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.
"I think that's the main thing. That doesn't presuppose the outcome of the negotiation," Carney added.
From BBC • May 6, 2025
Russian Arctic Ambassador Nikolay Korchunov, chair of the Senior Arctic Officials on the council, told Reuters the transition would "presuppose active and responsible participation of all Arctic Council member states in this preparatory process."
From Reuters • Mar. 28, 2023
I can't presuppose that these medical advancements wouldn't have happened.
From Salon • Mar. 18, 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
The options market also tended to presuppose that the distant future would look more like the present than it usually did.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
