premise

Pluralpremises

Formspremises, premising, premised

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A statement assumed or accepted as true, serving as the basis for further reasoning or argument.

   The debate collapsed once the central premise was shown to be false.

   Economists built their forecast on the premise that interest rates would stay low.

   Similarassumption, supposition, presupposition, hypothesis, basis

   Oppositeconclusion

   Note

   Behind the word is a phrase from medieval Latin, premissa propositio, "the proposition set before," from praemittere, "to send or put before." A premise is what comes first, the ground the rest of an argument stands on. It could also mean a condition or stipulation: in Shakespeare's All's Well, That Ends Well, "the premises observed" means the terms having been met.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   One of the initial propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is logically derived.

   A syllogism with a faulty major premise yields an unsound conclusion.

   Logicians distinguish the two premises that together entail the conclusion.

   Oppositeconclusion

   Note

   Logic narrows the everyday idea to a fixed slot. In a syllogism there are conventionally two premises, a major and a minor, and the conclusion follows from them jointly. A line attributed to Richard Allestree (1667) puts the rule neatly: "While the premises stand firm, 'tis impossible to shake the conclusion." To attack a valid argument, then, you attack a premise, not the reasoning.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The basic situation or idea on which the plot of a film, novel, or other story is built.

   The film's premise, a man reliving the same day, has been copied many times.

   Reviewers praised the clever premise but found the pacing slow.

   Similarconcept, idea, setup, conceit, hook

   Note

   The storyteller's version of the logician's starting point: the situation a plot is built on, often statable in a single line. Laura Martin, writing in 2021, sums up Opportunity Knocks by its "simple premise" of discovering ordinary people with hidden talents. Simple and clever are its natural companions. A premise differs from a plot, which is everything that happens once the premise is in place.

4. 4
   noun

   A piece of real estate consisting of a building along with its land and attached structures.

   The company leased commercial premises in the business district this spring.

   Security guards patrol the premises for an hour after closing.

   Similarproperty, building, site, grounds

   Note

   The everyday descendant of the legal deed sense, and plural even when only one building is meant: the premises, on the premises, back premises. It belongs to leases, notices and reports, as in trespass on another's premises. Keep it apart from the singular premise of an argument. A lease that speaks of premises always means property, never assumptions.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To state or assume something as a proposition forming the basis of an argument.

   Critics premise their objection on a misreading of the text.

   She premised the whole theory on data that later proved false.

   Similarbase, found, predicate, ground, rest

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To set something out beforehand as an introduction, to help explain or prepare for what follows.

   The author premises each chapter with a brief historical note.

   Allow me to premise my report with some background.

   Similarpreface, introduce, precede, open, prefix

   Note

   An eighteenth-century author's courtesy: a pause to set down what the reader needs before the matter proper begins. Fielding's The History of Tom Jones (1749) ends such a preface with "Having premised thus much," and Addison and Steele write in 1712, "I premise these particulars." The object is often a modest one, such as thus much or these particulars. The emphasis falls on order: this is said first so the rest makes sense.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To put forward or lay down a premise.

   Good philosophers premise before they deduce.

   She premised, then reasoned step by step to her conclusion.

   Similarpostulate, assume, posit, hypothesize

   Oppositeconclude

8. 8
   nouncountable

   The matters set forth earlier in a deed; specifically the opening portion that identifies the grantor, the grantee, and the property conveyed, covering everything before the habendum.

   The premises of the conveyance identified both parties and described the parcel of land.

   A drafting error in the premises left the grantee's name misspelled.

   Note

   A conveyancer's term, nearly always used in the plural. The premises are the opening part of a deed: the passage naming grantor and grantee and describing what is granted, running up to the habendum clause. From the description the word passed to the thing described, the property itself, and that shift is where the real-estate meaning comes from.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To send something ahead or before its proper time, and so to place one thing before another or to use something first, in advance of what follows.

   the premised flames of the last day

   1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt,”

   Note

   The most literal use, nearest the Latin verb's sense of "sending before." Shakespeare's "premised flames of the last day" in The Second Part of Henry the Sixth are flames sent ahead of their time. Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia speaks of time "to premise a brisk cathartic" before opium, meaning to give it first. Where the "say beforehand" meaning puts words first, this one puts things and actions first.

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