supposition

English

Etymology

From Middle English supposicioun, from Anglo-Norman supposicion, from Latin suppositiō, suppositiōnem (“supposition”), from sub- (“under”) + positiō, positiōnem (“position; theme”), from positus (“position”), from the perfect passive participle of pōnō, pōnere (“put, place”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌsʌpəˈzɪʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

supposition (countable and uncountable, plural suppositions)

1. Something that is supposed; an assumption made to account for known facts, conjecture.
   • 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:

     The supposition that Geoffrey had been chloroformed was a reasonable hypothesis at that stage of the disclosure.

   • 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 375:

     The supposition would therefore have to be that socialism will owe its success to a higher degree of labour productivity than is possible under capitalism.

2. The act or an instance of supposing.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:supposition

Derived terms

• missupposition
• suppositional
• suppositionary
• supposition theory

Related terms

• deposition
• suppositious
• supposititious
• suppository

Translations

assumption

Arabic: اِفْتِرَاض m (iftirāḍ), فَرْضِيَّة (ar) f (farḍiyya) Azerbaijani: fərziyyə, təxmin (az), güman (az), zənn (az), ehtimal (az), fərz (az), təxmin (az) Belarusian: прыпушчэ́нне n (prypuščénnje) Bulgarian: предположе́ние (bg) n (predpoložénie) Catalan: suposició f Chinese: Mandarin: 假定 (zh) (jiǎdìng), 設想 / 设想 (zh) (shèxiǎng) Czech: předpoklad (cs) m Dutch: veronderstelling (nl) Esperanto: supozo Finnish: oletus (fi) French: hypothèse (fr) f, supposition (fr) f, conjecture (fr) f German: Annahme (de) f, Supposition f (jargon) Greek: υπόθεση (el) f (ypóthesi) Ancient Greek: ὑπόληψις f (hupólēpsis) Hungarian: feltevés (hu) Irish: glacan f, dóigh f Italian: supposizione (it) f, presupposto (it) Japanese: 想像 (ja) (そうぞう, sōzō), 推測 (ja) (すいそく, suisoku) Korean: 상상 (ko) (sangsang), 추측 (ko) (chucheuk) Māori: pūmāramarama Polish: założenie (pl) n Portuguese: suposição (pt) f Romanian: supoziție (ro) f, presupunere (ro) f Russian: предположе́ние (ru) n (predpoložénije) Slovak: predpoklad m Spanish: suposición (es) f Swedish: supposition (sv) c Turkish: Ottoman Turkish: تقدیر (takdir) Ukrainian: припу́щення n (prypúščennja)

the act or an instance of supposing

German: Annehmen n Irish: forshuíomh m, toimhde f Romanian: presupunere (ro) f

French

Etymology

From supposer +‎ -tion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.po.zi.sjɔ̃/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

supposition f (plural suppositions)

1. supposition

Related terms

• présupposition

Further reading

• “supposition”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012