premise
PREM-iss
/ˈpremɪs/
A foundational statement or assumption from which a argument or conclusion is constructed.
Serves as the underlying baseline of an argument; if the premise is invalid, the resulting logical argument fails.
The story behind the word. In Medieval Latin legal documents, 'praemissa' literally meant 'things sent before'. It referred to the introductory statements put at the top of a legal deed, which later gave birth to the logical concept of a starting assertion.
Word relationships
- postulate: 'Postulate' implies a formal, unproven scientific assumption, whereas 'premise' applies broadly to any logical starting point.
- assumption: 'Assumption' can be unstated or careless, whereas a 'premise' is explicitly asserted as a logical foundation.
- conclusion: A 'premise' is the starting proposition; a 'conclusion' is the final derived result.
Commonly confused with
- premises: A 'premise' is a logical foundation; 'premises' (plural) refers to a building and its surrounding land.
Word family
- premised (verb): Based on a foundational assumption.
Collocations
- faulty premise
- underlying premise
- accept the premise
- base on the premise
Example sentences
- "The entire business plan was built on the faulty premise that consumer demand would double every quarter without additional marketing." Business planning critique
- "If the premise is untrue, the conclusion drawn from it must necessarily be questionable." Philosophical treatise
Memory hook
PRE-mise is sent BEFORE the conclusion to build the case. The baseline statement set down before reasoning begins.
When not to use
Do not confuse with 'premises' in the plural sense referring to real estate property.
Fun facts
- How did 'premise' come to mean a building? Legal deeds listed property descriptions in the introductory part ('premise'), so lawyers began referring to the property as 'the aforementioned premises'.
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