ASSUMPTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Assumption mean? 

• ASSUMPTION (noun)
  The noun ASSUMPTION has 7 senses:

1. a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn

2. a hypothesis that is taken for granted

3. the act of taking possession of or power over something

4. celebration in the Roman Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary's being taken up into heaven when her earthly life ended; corresponds to the Dormition in the Eastern Orthodox Church

5. (Christianity) the taking up of the body and soul of the Virgin Mary when her earthly life had ended

6. audacious (even arrogant) behavior that you have no right to

7. the act of assuming or taking for granted

  Familiarity information: ASSUMPTION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASSUMPTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

assumption; premise; premiss

Context example:

on the assumption that he has been injured we can infer that he will not play

Hypernyms ("assumption" is a kind of...):

posit; postulate ((logic) a proposition that is accepted as true in order to provide a basis for logical reasoning)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assumption"):

major premise; major premiss (the premise of a syllogism that contains the major term (which is the predicate of the conclusion))

minor premise; minor premiss; subsumption (the premise of a syllogism that contains the minor term (which is the subject of the conclusion))

thesis (an unproved statement put forward as a premise in an argument)

condition; precondition; stipulation (an assumption on which rests the validity or effect of something else)

scenario (a postulated sequence of possible events)

Derivation:

assume (take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A hypothesis that is taken for granted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

assumption; supposal; supposition

Context example:

any society is built upon certain assumptions

Hypernyms ("assumption" is a kind of...):

hypothesis; possibility; theory (a tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assumption"):

conclusion (an intuitive assumption)

base; basis; cornerstone; foundation; fundament; groundwork (the fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained)

given; precondition; presumption (an assumption that is taken for granted)

basic assumption; constatation; self-evident truth (an assumption that is basic to an argument)

Derivation:

assume (take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of taking possession of or power over something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

assumption; laying claim

Context example:

he acquired all the company's assets for ten million dollars and the assumption of the company's debts

Hypernyms ("assumption" is a kind of...):

acquisition (the act of contracting or assuming or acquiring possession of something)

Derivation:

assume (seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession)

assume (take on as one's own the expenses or debts of another person)

assume (take on titles, offices, duties, responsibilities)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Celebration in the Roman Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary's being taken up into heaven when her earthly life ended; corresponds to the Dormition in the Eastern Orthodox Church

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

Assumption; Assumption of Mary; August 15

Hypernyms ("Assumption" is a kind of...):

holy day of obligation (a day when Catholics must attend Mass and refrain from servile work, and Episcopalians must take Communion)

Holonyms ("Assumption" is a part of...):

Aug; August (the month following July and preceding September)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(Christianity) the taking up of the body and soul of the Virgin Mary when her earthly life had ended

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("Assumption" is a kind of...):

miracle (a marvellous event manifesting a supernatural act of a divine agent)

Domain category:

Christian religion; Christianity (a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior)

Derivation:

assume (take up someone's soul into heaven)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Audacious (even arrogant) behavior that you have no right to

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

assumption; effrontery; presumption; presumptuousness

Context example:

he despised them for their presumptuousness

Hypernyms ("assumption" is a kind of...):

audaciousness; audacity (aggressive boldness or unmitigated effrontery)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assumption"):

uppishness; uppityness (assumption of airs beyond one's station)

Sense 7

Meaning:

The act of assuming or taking for granted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

your assumption that I would agree was unwarranted

Hypernyms ("assumption" is a kind of...):

act; deed; human action; human activity (something that people do or cause to happen)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assumption"):

position (the act of positing; an assumption taken as a postulate or axiom)

Derivation:

assume (take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof)

 Context examples 

They also reviewed a room schematic to confirm the assumption that patients were potentially positioned to interact.

(Social interaction affects cancer patients’ response to treatment, National Institutes of Health)

The assumption behind such measures is that providing customers with clearer information on the energy content of food served will allow them to make more informed, and hence ‘better’, choices.

(Menu labelling linked to less fat and salt in food, University of Cambridge)

"This study provides the tools for investigating this once untestable assumption," says Associate Professor Whitford, of the UNSW School of Psychology.

(Talking to Ourselves And Voices in Our Heads, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This works for some soils, but not exactly for others, as the assumption doesn’t factor in nitrogen from soil organic matter.

(New Test Can Determine Nitrogen Levels in Soil, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Among the findings that challenge assumptions are those provided by Juno’s imager, JunoCam.

(First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission, NASA)

Hughes says: There has been an assumption that it’s really difficult to get dads involved in research like this.

(Prenatal parental stress linked to behaviour problems in toddlers, University of Cambridge)

In 2007, researchers in France proposed a radical departure from the long-held assumption that the Earth's mantle has remained entirely solid since the very beginnings of the planet.

(Earth's mantle, not its core, may have generated planet's early magnetic field, National Science Foundation)

In statistical inference procedures (hypothesis tests and confidence intervals), parametric procedures are those that incorporate assumptions about population parameters.

(Parametric Test, NCI Thesaurus)

In statistical inference procedures (hypothesis tests and confidence intervals), nonparametric procedures are those that are relatively free of assumptions about population parameters.

(Non-Parametric Test, NCI Thesaurus)

An assumption on which rests the validity or effect of something else.

(Logical Condition, NCI Thesaurus)