PRESUMPTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does presumption mean? 

• PRESUMPTION (noun)
  The noun PRESUMPTION has 4 senses:

1. an assumption that is taken for granted

2. (law) an inference of the truth of a fact from other facts proved or admitted or judicially noticed

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

4. a kind of discourtesy in the form of an act of presuming

  Familiarity information: PRESUMPTION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRESUMPTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An assumption that is taken for granted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

given; precondition; presumption

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

assumption; supposal; supposition (a hypothesis that is taken for granted)

Derivation:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

(law) an inference of the truth of a fact from other facts proved or admitted or judicially noticed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

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

illation; inference (the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Derivation:

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

Sense 3

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 ("presumption" is a kind of...):

audaciousness; audacity (aggressive boldness or unmitigated effrontery)

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

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

Derivation:

presume (take liberties or act with too much confidence)

presumptuous (excessively forward)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A kind of discourtesy in the form of an act of presuming

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

his presumption was intolerable

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

discourtesy; offence; offense; offensive activity (a lack of politeness; a failure to show regard for others; wounding the feelings or others)

Derivation:

presume (take liberties or act with too much confidence)

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

presume (take upon oneself; act presumptuously, without permission)

presumptuous (excessively forward)

 Context examples 

If he wanted, he would send for her; and even to offer an early return was a presumption which hardly anything would have seemed to justify.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

How Harriet could ever have had the presumption to raise her thoughts to Mr. Knightley!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I am almost ashamed to make the request, though its presumption would certainly appear greater to every creature in Bath than yourself.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The presumption is strongly against it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The presumption is that it was within a few minutes afterwards.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There is a strong presumption that the person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was someone who had been in Australia.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They ordered him to bed, threatened that he should have no meat at all, and promised him sore beatings for his presumption.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

This match, to which you have the presumption to aspire, can never take place.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But all of my own sex—especially one impostor, three or four years my elder, with a red whisker, on which he established an amount of presumption not to be endured—were my mortal foes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Go tell him that a humble knight of England would make his further honorable acquaintance, not from any presumption, pride, or ill-will, but for the advancement of chivalry and the glory of our ladies.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)