assumption

From Middle English assumpcioun, from Medieval Latin assumptio (“a taking up (into heaven)”) and Latin assumptio (“a taking up, adoption, the minor proposition of a syllogism”). Doublet of assumptio; see assume.

• IPA^(key): /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/[1][2][3]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmpʃən

assumption (countable and uncountable, plural assumptions)

1. The act of assuming, or taking to or upon oneself; the act of taking up or adopting.

   His assumption of secretarial duties was timely.

2. The act of taking for granted, or supposing a thing without proof; a supposition; an unwarrantable claim.

   Their assumption of his guilt disqualified them from jury duty.

3. The thing supposed; a postulate, or proposition assumed; a supposition.
   • 1976, “The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Volume 10”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:

     No doubt a finite evaluative argument must make some unargued evaluative assumptions, just as finite factual arguments must make some unargued factual assumptions.

4. (logic) The minor or second proposition in a categorical syllogism.
5. The taking of a person up into heaven.
   • 1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), William Tyndale, “William Tyndale other wise Called William Hychins vnto the Reader”, in The Obediẽce of a Christen Man […], [Antwerp: Johannes Hoochstraten], →OCLC, folio xix, recto:

     Of vvhat texte thou proveſt hell / vvill a nother prove purgatory / a nother lymbo patrum / and a nother the aſſumpcion of oure ladi: And a nother ſhall prove of the ſame texte that an Ape hath a tayle.

6. A festival in honor of the ascent of the Virgin Mary into heaven, celebrated on 15 August.
7. (rhetoric) Assumptio.

• See also Thesaurus:supposition

• assume
• assumptive

• “assumption”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “assumption”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.