proposition

Pluralpropositions

Formspropositions, propositioning, propositioned

1. 1
   nouncountable

   An idea, plan, or suggestion offered to others for their consideration.

   Investors found the startup's proposition attractive but risky.

   She countered with a proposition of her own: half now, half on delivery.

   Similarproposal, suggestion, plan, offer, idea

   Note

   A countable noun for whatever has been put on the table, and a durable one. The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) speaks of "the humor of my proposition", and Taylor Swift's "Girl at Home" (2012) gives one a favorable rating. It readily takes an evaluating adjective such as fine, attractive or risky, so a proposition is often judged as much as it is considered.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The terms of a business deal as offered to the other party.

   The buyer rejected the proposition, calling the asking price too high.

   After weeks of talks, the supplier's proposition finally included volume discounts.

   Similaroffer, proposal, deal, bid

   Note

   Business talk treats the offer as a package: price, conditions and obligations taken together, which the other side may accept, reject or counter. That is the difference from the general "suggestion" meaning. A plan can be admired, but a proposition in this sense is something to say yes or no to, and the verbs that follow it are the verbs of a deal.

3. 3
   nounUScountable

   In some US states, a proposed law or constitutional amendment placed on the ballot for voters to approve or reject.

   Proposition 13 reshaped California's property tax system in 1978.

   Several propositions on this year's ballot deal with housing and transit funding.

   Similarmeasure, initiative

   Note

   Ballot language in some US states: a proposed statute or constitutional amendment sent straight to voters, typically by initiative or referendum, and enacted by popular vote rather than by the legislature. Propositions are numbered and capitalized like names, as in Proposition 13. Samantha Wright's 2024 report on Idaho uses "Prop 1", the everyday clipped form.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   An assertion formulated so that it can be judged true or false.

   A scientific hypothesis is usually framed as a testable proposition.

   The debate turned on whether his claim was a genuine proposition or just an expression of feeling.

   Similarstatement, assertion, claim, thesis

   Note

   Where the abstract content of an assertion is about what is said, here the stress falls on how the assertion is worded: it must be stated so that it has a truth value at all. That separates it from questions, commands and exclamations, which are neither true nor false. Recasting a vague claim as a proposition means rewording it until it can be checked.

5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

   An invitation to have sex, directed at a person one is not already sexually involved with.

   He mistook her friendliness for interest, and his blunt proposition ended the evening.

   She reported the client's proposition to her manager the next morning.

   Similaradvance, pass, overture, come-on

   Note

   A narrowing of the plain "suggestion" meaning, in which only one kind of offer is meant, and context alone tells the two apart. It is informal. It can be countable, as in a blunt proposition, or used more loosely, as in HarryBlank's "Transposthumousism" (2023), where a groan comes out "just shy of a proposition." Its verb counterpart is to proposition someone.

6. 6
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To approach someone directly with an offer, proposal, or suggestion.

   Recruiters propositioned her with a signing bonus before she had even graduated.

   Rival firms regularly proposition our best engineers with promises of higher pay.

   Similarapproach, court, woo, solicit, tempt

   Note

   The neutral verb takes its person as a direct object: recruiters proposition a graduate with an offer. A 1984 piece in Gay Community News writes "proposition with me", but the usual pattern has no with. Use the verb with care, because the sexual sense now dominates it, and even a plain business offer described this way can be misread.

7. 7
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To suggest sex to someone with whom one is not sexually involved.

   He was fired after he propositioned a coworker at the holiday party.

   Witnesses said the official would proposition junior staffers and then deny everything.

   Similarsolicit, accost, approach

   Note

   The verb's dominant sense, and the reason the neutral "make an offer" use is easily misread. Its everyday equivalents are hit on, come on to and make a pass at, all naming an unsolicited overture. Proposition differs from them in grammar: it takes its person directly as object, with no preposition. One propositions someone, but hits on them.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   The content of an assertion, regarded as true or false in itself and considered apart from the particular sentence that expresses it.

   'Snow is white' in English and 'Schnee ist weiß' in German express one and the same proposition.

   Philosophers debate whether propositions exist independently of the minds that grasp them.

   Note

   The logician's proposition is what a sentence says, not the sentence itself, so two languages can express one proposition. Aristotelian logic gives it a fixed anatomy: a subject, a predicate affirmed or denied of it, and a copula joining them, as in "snow is white." When precision matters, a sentence is said to express a proposition, and only the proposition is strictly true or false.

9. 9
   noununcountable

   The act of putting an idea forward for consideration.

   The proposition of a merger surprised shareholders at the annual meeting.

   Reform began with the proposition of a single bold idea: open the archives to the public.

   Similarproposal, suggestion

   Note

   The root of the whole family came into English through Middle English proposicioun and Old French proposicion, from Latin prōpositiō, a noun formed on the verb prōpōnō. Here the word names the act itself and is uncountable: one speaks of the proposition of a plan, not of a proposition. Once the thing put forward is meant, the noun becomes countable, and that is the "suggestion" meaning.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    An assertion that is provably true but not considered important enough to be called a theorem.

    Chapter two states a proposition about prime numbers and proves it in three lines.

    Several propositions in the paper serve only as stepping stones to the central theorem.

    Similarlemma

    Note

    Mathematics ranks its proved results, and this one sits in the middle: below a theorem in importance, and in some conventions above a lemma. A proposition is a proved statement of independent interest that does not anchor a theory. Calling a result a theorem instead is a claim about how much it matters, not about how surely it holds.

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