Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A plan suggested for acceptance; a proposal.
  • noun A matter to be dealt with; a task.
  • noun An offer of a private bargain, especially a request for sexual relations.
  • noun A subject for discussion or analysis.
  • noun A statement that affirms or denies something.
  • noun The meaning expressed in such a statement, as opposed to the way it is expressed.
  • noun Mathematics A theorem.
  • transitive verb To propose a private bargain to, especially to propose sexual relations with.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Something to be done, accomplished, etc.; especially, something difficult or puzzling.
  • noun The act of placing or setting forth; the act of offering.
  • noun That which is proposed; that which is offered for consideration, acceptance, or adoption; a proposal; offer of terms: commonly in the plural: as, propositions of peace.
  • noun A representation in thought or language of an act of the mind in thinking a quality or general sign, termed a predicate, to be applicable to something indicated, and termed a subject.
  • noun In mathematics, a statement in terms of either a truth to be demonstrated or an operation to be performed.
  • noun In rhetoric, that which is offered or affirmed as the subject of the discourse; anything stated or affirmed for discussion or illustration; the first part of a poem, in which the author states the subject or matter of it: as, Horace recommends modesty and simplicity in the proposition of a poem.
  • noun In music: The act or process of enunciating or giving out a theme or subject.
  • noun Specifically — The subject of a fugue, as distinguished from the answer.
  • noun An assumption of what appears likely.
  • noun propositions de necessario quando, which stated something to be necessarily true at specified times; and
  • noun propositions de necessario simpliciter, or categorical apodictic propositions. The latter were further divided into propositions de necessario simpliciter pro nunc, or propositions stating something to be necessarily true now, and propositions de necessario simpliciter pro semper, stating something to be always necessarily true.
  • noun Usually, a categorical proposition, or one expressed by means of a noun and a verb, as contradistinguished from a conditional proposition.
  • noun 3 and Position, thesis, statement, declaration, dictum, doctrine. Proposition differs from the words compared under subject, in that it is the technical word in rhetoric for the indication of the theme of a discourse.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of setting or placing before; the act of offering.
  • noun That which is proposed; that which is offered, as for consideration, acceptance, or adoption; a proposal
  • noun A statement of religious doctrine; an article of faith; creed.
  • noun (Gram. & Logic) A complete sentence, or part of a sentence consisting of a subject and predicate united by a copula; a thought expressed or propounded in language; a from of speech in which a predicate is affirmed or denied of a subject.
  • noun (Math.) A statement in terms of a truth to be demonstrated, or of an operation to be performed.
  • noun (Rhet.) That which is offered or affirmed as the subject of the discourse; anything stated or affirmed for discussion or illustration.
  • noun (Poetry) The part of a poem in which the author states the subject or matter of it.
  • noun (Jewish Antiq.) the showbread.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The act of offering (an idea) for consideration.
  • noun countable An idea or a plan offered.
  • noun countable, business settings The terms of a transaction offered.
  • noun countable, logic The content of an assertion that may be taken as being true or false and is considered abstractly without reference to the linguistic sentence that constitutes the assertion.
  • noun countable, US, politics In some states, a proposed statute or constitutional amendment to be voted on by the electorate.
  • noun countable, mathematics An assertion so formulated that it can be considered true or false.
  • noun countable, mathematics As a special case, textbooks often, and papers sometimes, label an assertion which is provably true, but not important enough to be a theorem, a proposition. Normally this is part of a numerical reference system (Proposition 3.2, Lemma 3.3, Theorem 3.4)
  • verb transitive To propose a plan to (someone).
  • verb transitive To propose some illicit behaviour to (someone). Often sexual in nature.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an offer for a private bargain (especially a request for sexual favors)
  • verb suggest sex to
  • noun the act of making a proposal
  • noun a proposal offered for acceptance or rejection
  • noun (logic) a statement that affirms or denies something and is either true or false
  • noun a task to be dealt with

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English proposicion, from Old French proposition, from Latin prōpositiō, prōpositiōn-, setting out in words, from prōpositus, past participle of prōpōnere, to set forth; see propose.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French, from Latin prōpositiō ("a proposing, design, theme, case").

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Examples

  • “(ˆƒ n) ¦” with the proposition ¦ “There are two foreign words on this page”,™ which doesn't provide the grammar of the former ˜proposition,™ but only indicates an analogy in their respective rules.

    Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics Rodych, Victor 2007

  • In his analysis of the Liar paradox, Russell assumed that there exists a true entity ” the proposition ” that is presupposed by a genuine statement (e.g., when I say that Socrates is mortal, there is a fact corresponding to my assertion and it is this fact that is called ˜proposition™).

    Paradoxes and Contemporary Logic Cantini, Andrea 2007

  • Suppose we use the term proposition 'to denote the things that are true or false in the primary sense, leaving it open just what they are and in particular whether or not they are all sentences.

    Warranted Christian Belief 1932- 2000

  • She says we should have been talking tonight about how to reach the targets that have been set for us by the scientific community, not whether we should do it [good point, except that the proposition is about "mankind's defining crisis", not whether we should tackle climate change].

    Climate change is mankind’s defining crisis (Mobiot/Lomborg debate) | Serendipity 2009

  • She says we should have been talking tonight about how to reach the targets that have been set for us by the scientific community, not whether we should do it [good point, except that the proposition is about "mankind's defining crisis", not whether we should tackle climate change].

    2009 December | Serendipity 2009

  • She says we should have been talking tonight about how to reach the targets that have been set for us by the scientific community, not whether we should do it [good point, except that the proposition is about "mankind's defining crisis", not whether we should tackle climate change].

    2009 December 1 | Serendipity 2009

  • I beg to differ with the said observers and suggest that their proposition is a lot of arrant nonsense.

    Smith & Mugabe: Who is the better man? 2007

  • I beg to differ with the said observers and suggest that their proposition is a lot of arrant nonsense.

    Archive 2007-11-18 2007

  • This notion roughly corresponds to what we call a proposition and it is expressed linguistically in subordinate clauses [daß-Sätzen] or in the infinitive form (the being p of S).

    On A Trans-Atlantic Flight 2009

  • Second – if the proposition is accurate, the fact that somebody is wasting their time writing about it seems even more absurd.

    Narcissus and Me | Her Bad Mother 2007

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