assumption - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English assumpcioun, from Medieval Latin assumptio (“a taking up (into heaven)”) and Latin assumptio (“a taking up, adoption, the minor proposition of a syllogism”). Doublet of assumptio; see assume.

assumption (countable and uncountable, plural assumptions)

  1. The act of assuming, or taking to or upon oneself; the act of taking up or adopting.
    His assumption of secretarial duties was timely.
  2. The act of taking for granted, or supposing a thing without proof; a supposition; an unwarrantable claim.
    Their assumption of his guilt disqualified them from jury duty.
  3. The thing supposed; a postulate, or proposition assumed; a supposition.
    • 1976, “The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Volume 10”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[1]:
      No doubt a finite evaluative argument must make some unargued evaluative assumptions, just as finite factual arguments must make some unargued factual assumptions.
  4. (logic) The minor or second proposition in a categorical syllogism.
  5. The taking of a person up into heaven.
    • 1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), William Tyndale, “William Tyndale other wise Called William Hychins vnto the Reader”, in The Obediẽce of a Christen Man […], [Antwerp]: [Johannes Hoochstraten], →OCLC, folio xix, recto:
      Of vvhat texte thou proveſt hell / vvill a nother prove purgatory / a nother lymbo patrum / and a nother the aſſumpcion of oure ladi: And a nother ſhall prove of the ſame texte that an Ape hath a tayle.
  6. A festival in honor of the ascent of the Virgin Mary into heaven, celebrated on 15 August.
  7. (rhetoric) Assumptio.

the act of assuming, or taking to or upon oneself

supposition

thing supposed

the minor or second proposition in a categorical syllogism

taking of a person up into heaven

festival in honor of the ascent of the Virgin Mary into heaven

  1. ^ The Chambers Dictionary, 9th Ed., 2003
  2. ^ “assumption”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “assumption”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.