What does "presupposition" mean?

An assumption made beforehand; a preliminary conjecture or speculation.

What is a synonym for "presupposition"?

Common synonyms include: assumption, a priori principle, act, affect, affirmation, allegory.

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level

Noun

1
An assumption made beforehand; a preliminary conjecture or speculation. countable, uncountable
"He made one cardinal error in his presuppositions about the relation between language and perception, but in this he was far from alone."
2
the act of presupposing; a supposition made prior to having knowledge (as for the purpose of argument) wordnet
3
The act of presupposing. countable, uncountable
4
An assumption or belief implicit in an utterance or other use of language. countable, uncountable
"For instance: a verb might convey someone's evaluation of it as a presupposition. To say ‘they deprived him of a visit to his parents’ presupposes that he wanted to visit (vs. ‘spare him a visit...’)."

"He made one cardinal error in his presuppositions about the relation between language and perception, but in this he was far from alone."

From Middle French présupposition, from Latin praesuppositio, from the past participle stem of praesuppōnere (“to presuppose”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.