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assumption
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
assumption
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a reasonable assumption
▪ It is a reasonable assumption that he pressed the wrong button.
an underlying assumption
▪ There is an underlying assumption that new technology is always a good thing.
challenge a view/an idea/an assumption etc
▪ Viewpoints such as these are strongly challenged by environmentalists.
false assumptions
▪ false assumptions about people of other cultures
implicit criticism/threat/assumption
▪ Her words contained an implicit threat.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
basic
▪ It was easy to see what their basic assumption was.
▪ Like the stomach surgeon, a psychiatrist can make all sorts of basic assumptions when a patient lies down on the couch.
▪ Furthermore, the pure climatic-geomorphological point of view involves two basic assumptions, which one would hesitate to make.
▪ A basic economic assumption in a market economy is the continual adjustment of supply and demand toward an equilibrium point.
▪ It remains one of the basic archaeological assumptions, however, that the two are linked.
▪ A basic assumption was that they would be the experts on everything.
▪ When a similar picture is adopted for the crystallization of a polymer certain basic assumptions are made first.
▪ Their basic assumptions are very clear.
certain
▪ The majority of the procedures themselves and of the theoretical results describing their properties rest on certain assumptions.
▪ In developing our scenarios, we made certain assumptions.
▪ Some equations, asserted in a certain context or on certain assumptions, have to do with parts of causal circumstances.
▪ In addition, Sharpe and Lintner made certain assumptions about the nature of the market: 4.
▪ We can measure productivity but with motivation we can only make certain assumptions that improved motivation may lead to improved performance.
▪ This contradicts certain of the assumptions and theories which are popular in explaining patterns of inequality in employment.
▪ When a similar picture is adopted for the crystallization of a polymer certain basic assumptions are made first.
▪ There are certain assumptions in the study of pottery from an evolutionary perspective.
different
▪ The theories discussed below may have evolved from different assumptions, but it is still difficult to discriminate completely between them.
▪ This is a different basic assumption than what is required for a peak performing team.
▪ To overcome this problem many policy papers which examine population ageing produce a variety of projections using different fertility assumptions.
▪ Rather, they embody some very different assumptions about education and work for the twenty-first century.
▪ Both of these expressions, however, have rather different underlying assumptions.
▪ There were, said McGregor, a different set of assumptions that were well founded in behavioral research.
▪ Individuals from different cultures may not only contract together using different cultural assumptions, but using an entirely different legal framework.
▪ They entail quite different assumptions about the nature of literacy than those put forward by Hildyard and Olson.
false
▪ In human terms the reasoning which had been presented to him was filled with flaws and false assumptions.
▪ This can be shown to be a false assumption, however.
▪ It is the irreconcilable contradiction inevitable in humanism because of its false assumptions in constructing a world-view.
▪ There is an assumption in it, and, I contend, the assumption is false.
▪ He should not put words in my mouth, however, or make false assumptions.
▪ Because of these false assumptions, Labour's appeal is restricted.
▪ But the false assumption is that everybody can be reclassified as a wealth creator.
fundamental
▪ Second point: is the constructivist's fundamental assumption not justified if knowledge is our subject of study rather than successful behaviour?
▪ But there is a danger that the current reforms will leave untouched fundamental assumptions about the lives and needs of service users.
▪ However, subsequent excavations at Maiden Castle, Arikamedu and Charsadda have inevitably caused many of his fundamental assumptions to be refuted.
▪ Is it perhaps time to re-examine some of the fundamental assumptions underlying that policy?
▪ The fundamental assumption was that Time will always discover and avenge any act of injustice.
▪ Although Friedmann found only one, there are in fact three different kinds of models that obey Friedmann's two fundamental assumptions.
▪ This approach must first identify and question three fundamental assumptions on which most conservation thinking currently rests.
general
▪ This highlights the second major difficulty with the theories, the general assumption that there is a unitary dimension of arousal.
▪ The following computations are based on both general assumptions about all families and specific assumptions about families at specific income levels.
▪ There was a general assumption, he declared, that nothing that exists, exists without a cause.
▪ Honest answers to these questions suggest that the general assumption that growth in one country benefits the entire world is highly dubious.
implicit
▪ The second aspect seems even more important: it warns against false generalisations and implicit assumptions.
▪ However, there are in fact several implicit and unproven assumptions hidden in the account I have just given.
▪ We begin interactions with an implicit assumption that other people determine and control their behaviour.
▪ One part of our task is to draw attention to implicit, underlying assumptions which inform the theoretical stances adopted.
▪ It relates to two powerful but implicit assumptions in the messages of women's magazines.
▪ The implicit assumption is that investors can borrow and lend at the riskless rate of interest.
▪ Sontag argued against what was in effect the differentiated mode of signification implicit in the assumptions of uptown culture.
▪ Eventually other, initially implicit, assumptions were to be unearthed and modified.
reasonable
▪ For the most part this is a reasonable assumption to make.
▪ This is a reasonable simplistic assumption, but it is the best that will normally be possible.
▪ It is a reasonable assumption that improvements can be made even to the best of schools.
▪ Given a few reasonable assumptions about f, it is guaranteed to find a best path from the start to a goal.
▪ The error lay in a very simple but quite reasonable assumption which everyone made.
underlying
▪ Both of these expressions, however, have rather different underlying assumptions.
▪ In the classroom, cultural analysis encourages students to examine for themselves the underlying assumptions in the texts they are studying.
▪ They have questioned the whole underlying design assumption of the private car as a throw-away product.
▪ The underlying assumption appears to be one of integration.
▪ We agree with the underlying assumptions of the Kingman Report and, in essentials, with its conclusions.
▪ Conversely, activities which seem on the surface to be the same may turn out to realize different underlying assumptions.
▪ The underlying assumption of the project is that certain computer-based experiences can help pupils bridge the gap between arithmetical and algebraic thinking.
▪ In the methods I described as essentialist, the underlying assumptions are qualitative rather than quantitative.
■ VERB
based
▪ As I have implied, many of Durkheim's conclusions are tautological or based upon inaccurate assumptions and evidence.
▪ Such are the perils when one acts based on outdated assumptions.
▪ Steady-state forecasts are always based on some assumptions about social system behaviour.
▪ My writing is based on the assumption that the less money you spend, the more authentic your experience.
▪ The policy may be based on an assumption that not many houses are required in the whole district.
▪ Such a recommendation, the panel added, was of course based on the assumption that the Reclamation project was still feasible.
▪ This criticism is based on the assumptions on which the model is based.
▪ The simple ironic reading is based on the assumption that the high Shakespearian allusions are really inapposite.
challenge
▪ We rarely sit down to challenge some assumption we have always used.
▪ They ended by challenging many of the assumptions of scientific management and establishing that work had both social and psychological dimensions.
▪ Transnationalism and interdependence challenge the three assumptions of Realism noted by Vasquez.
▪ In doing so, they challenge the assumptions of the modern worldview as never be-fore.
▪ No-one challenged the assumptions which ran throughout the lecture.
▪ The furore among providers about current government-funding policies which challenge the latter assumption suggests that this is a real danger.
▪ Another move might have involved challenging some assumption in the protective belt such as those concerning refraction in the earth's atmosphere.
▪ Moreover, the findings challenge conventional assumptions about the amounts of time the different subjects should be allocated.
depend
▪ The distribution of taxes depends on the assumptions about the incidence, discussed below, and on the allocation series.
▪ Therefore, the choice of method depends on which assumption is closest to reality.
▪ The result described does however depend on strong assumptions.
▪ Electronic commerce depends on the unspoken assumption that computers cooperate efficiently for seamless information sharing.
▪ They depend on assumptions which have been made and on uncertain future events.
▪ The projected totality of all conventional and nonconventional natural gas sources depends significantly on the assumptions made.
▪ Whether such a steady state is locally stable depends on the assumptions made concerning expectations.
▪ As results depend on the assumptions, those chosen for these examples are deliberately modest.
make
▪ These authors are right to point out that in cross sectional analyses it is difficult to make assumptions of causality.
▪ Conservatism makes few assumptions about human nature.
▪ However, she makes two highly questionable assumptions that must be challenged.
▪ I was already learning not to make any assumptions about what he might or might not do.
▪ Rather, they can act only as a guide to decision making by making the assumptions underlying the decisions explicit.
▪ The researchers are making assumptions based on their preliminary human findings and the changes observed in animals.
▪ But they are making the assumption that people eat.
question
▪ One must also question the assumption that single-discipline degrees are themselves immaculately unified.
▪ Because we are still questioning the assumptions, there are no theories.
▪ And she knew she was annoying them whenever she questioned their assumptions.
▪ Odilon Redon questioned the universal assumption that the photographic image was a transmitter of truth.
▪ Reworking her rich and cultural history to question Western attitudes and assumptions.
▪ The Regional Council also questioned the assumptions on costs in the Government's paper.
▪ There is therefore a need to question this assumption that aggression is a given element which somehow has to be accounted for.
▪ There are at least two reasons to question the assumptions underlying such notions.
rest
▪ The majority of the procedures themselves and of the theoretical results describing their properties rest on certain assumptions.
▪ The strategic order among the major nuclear powers is fragile, however, because it rests heavily on the assumption of nonuse.
▪ Political theory rests on the assumption that these activities are central to the functioning of a democratic society.
▪ However, such schemes rest on the assumption that the small businessman already has an idea he wishes to develop.
▪ But when the proof comes it also turns out to rest on the assumption that it is already true.
work
▪ It works on the assumption that each side is willing to move from its starting point during the negotiations.
▪ Politicians seem to work on the assumption that the early bird catches the voter.
▪ When a crime is reported to the police they do not work on the assumption that anyone could have done it.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
work on the principle/assumption/basis etc that
▪ Gamekeepers worked on the principle that any other animals that preyed on pheasants must be ruthlessly eliminated.
▪ It works on the assumption that each side is willing to move from its starting point during the negotiations.
▪ It works on the principle that the pursuer will not be able to change direction as efficiently as the prey.
▪ Politicians seem to work on the assumption that the early bird catches the voter.
▪ The therapy works on the principle that like cures like.
▪ These devices work on the principle that the oscillating frequency of a crystal under an applied voltage changes with crystal mass.
▪ They work on the principle that most people pay up if they're pestered for long enough.
▪ When a crime is reported to the police they do not work on the assumption that anyone could have done it.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ At that time we had to make the assumption that the disease was spreading and take action to stop it.
▪ Eden acted on the assumption that his allies would support him.
▪ Yes the Socialists will probably win -- that seems a fair assumption.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Any decisions made about allocations are not value-free but are now based on the original assumptions about the weightings.
▪ Here we see that Bourdieu criticizes structuralism for its assumptions, not of too little, but of too much scientific objectivity.
▪ It is clear that Dworkin does make this assumption.
▪ Questions to be explored include: How large is the gap between policy assumptions and social reality?
▪ The report also notes the confused assumptions that governed the relationship between Kimmel and Short.
▪ We also need to make assumptions about the knowledge of the people with whom we are interacting.
▪ When historians and anthropologists first began to investigate the issue of pre-patriarchal cultures they made two assumptions.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Assumption

Assumption \As*sump"tion\ (?; 215), n. [OE. assumpcioun a taking up into heaven, L. assumptio a taking, fr. assumere: cf. F. assomption. See Assume.]

  1. The act of assuming, or taking to or upon one's self; the act of taking up or adopting.

    The assumption of authority.
    --Whewell.

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

    This gives no sanction to the unwarrantable assumption that the soul sleeps from the period of death to the resurrection of the body.
    --Thodey.

    That calm assumption of the virtues.
    --W. Black.

  3. The thing supposed; a postulate, or proposition assumed; a supposition.

    Hold! says the Stoic; your assumption's wrong.
    --Dryden.

  4. (Logic) The minor or second proposition in a categorical syllogism.

  5. The taking of a person up into heaven. Hence: (Rom. Cath. & Greek Churches) A festival in honor of the ascent of the Virgin Mary into heaven.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
assumption

c.1300, "the reception, uncorrupted, of the Virgin Mary into Heaven," also the Church festival (Aug. 15) commemorating this, Feast of the Assumption, from Old French assumpcion and directly from Latin assumptionem (nominative assumptio) "a taking, receiving," noun of action from past participle stem of assumere "take up, take to oneself" (see assume).\n

\nMeaning "minor premise of a syllogism" is late 14c. Meaning "appropriation of a right or possession" is mid-15c. Meaning "action of taking for oneself" is recorded from 1580s; that of "something taken for granted" is from 1620s.

Wiktionary
assumption

n. 1 The act of assume, or taking to or upon one's self; the act of take up or adopting. 2 The act of taking for granted, or suppose a thing without proof; a supposition; an unwarrantable claim. 3 The thing supposed; a postulate, or proposition assumed; a supposition.

WordNet
assumption

  1. n. a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn; "on the assumption that he has been injured we can infer that he will not to play" [syn: premise, premiss]

  2. a hypothesis that is taken for granted; "any society is built upon certain assumptions" [syn: supposition, supposal]

  3. the act of taking possession of or power over something; "his assumption of office coincided with the trouble in Cuba"; "the Nazi assumption of power in 1934"; "he acquired all the company's assets for ten million dollars and the assumption of the company's debts" [syn: laying claim]

  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 [syn: Assumption of Mary, August 15]

  5. audacious (even arrogant) behavior that you have no right to; "he despised them for their presumptuousness" [syn: presumption, presumptuousness, effrontery]

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

  7. the act of assuming or taking for granted; "your assumption that I would agree was unwarranted"

Related phrases:
Gazetteer
Assumption, IL -- U.S. city in Illinois
Population (2000): 1261
Housing Units (2000): 607
Land area (2000): 0.879889 sq. miles (2.278902 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.879889 sq. miles (2.278902 sq. km)
FIPS code: 02609
Located within: Illinois (IL), FIPS 17
Location: 39.519545 N, 89.049129 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 62510
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Assumption, IL
Assumption
Assumption -- U.S. Parish in Louisiana
Population (2000): 23388
Housing Units (2000): 9635
Land area (2000): 338.681886 sq. miles (877.182021 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 25.871397 sq. miles (67.006609 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 364.553283 sq. miles (944.188630 sq. km)
Located within: Louisiana (LA), FIPS 22
Location: 29.926900 N, 91.054794 W
Headwords:
Assumption
Assumption, LA
Assumption Parish
Assumption Parish, LA
Wikipedia
Assumption

Assumption may refer to:

  • Assumption of Mary, a religious account of the taking up of Mary into heaven
  • Assumption of Moses, a Jewish apocryphal pseudepigraphical work of uncertain date and authorship
Assumption (short story)

"Assumption" is Samuel Beckett's first published story, appearing in Transition magazine in June 1929, in the same issue as James Joyce's Work in Progress.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "assumption".

Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so much of menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer that note any further than I have, and to add that the consequences to which I suppose you allude would be matter of as great regret to me as it possibly could to you.

Our assumptions had been based principally on how the anthrax bacterium acted in settings that were almost preindustrial--before most buildings were air conditioned, before technology allowed us to sort mail with the force of air, and before we had advanced medical technologies to help us stabilize patients and make more definitive diagnoses.

We had to reexamine our assumptions about anthrax--about the likelihood of contracting inhalational anthrax compared to cutaneous anthrax, about the relative risk to those who had little or no contact with the actual anthrax-laced letter, and about the best ways to diagnose and treat those with the disease.

The original assumption that the accursed Khanate had conquered humanity might have been an error, but the infidels had certainly been seduced into apostasy somehow.

The fixing of the tradition under the title of apostolic necessarily led to the assumption that whoever held the apostolic doctrine was also essentially a Christian in the apostolic sense.

Surely if he had ever seen that wonderful artistry which she knew was hers, witnessed the half-crazy enthusiasm with which her audience received her, he would make allowance, judge her a little less harshly for what was, after all, a very natural assumption on the part of a stage favourite.

But without approving the extreme doctrine which General Jackson announced with the applause of his party, it is surely not an unreasonable assumption that in the case of a statute which has had no judicial interpretation and whose meaning is not altogether clear, the President is not to be impeached for acting upon his own understanding of its scope and intent:--especially is he not to be impeached when he offers to prove that he was sustained in his opinion by every member of his Cabinet, and offers further to prove by the same honorable witnesses that he took the step in order to subject the statute in dispute to judicial interpretation.

Secondly, because to a common nature can only be attributed common and universal operations, according to which man neither merits nor demerits, whereas, on the contrary, the assumption took place in order that the Son of God, having assumed our nature, might merit for us.

While, if the conception had been going on for any time before the perfect formation of the body, the whole conception could not be attributed to the Son of God, since it is not attributed to Him except by reason of the assumption of that body.

The ranger nodded, and gradually, as he dismissed the negative assumptions and began basking in the reality of the situation, a smile widened across his handsome face.

There were many hidden assumptions in the word, and not every Belter believed them all.

It was the same Guzman Bento who, becoming later Perpetual President, famed for his ruthless and cruel tyranny, readied his apotheosis in the popular legend of a sanguinary land-haunting spectre whose body had been carried off by the devil in person from the brick mausoleum in the nave of the Church of Assumption in Sta.

As Brek expected, the hierarch resented the assumption of equality in that look.

Strangely enough, Brine took comfort in the fact that this experience was invalidating every assumption he had ever made about the nature of the world.

But, on the other hand, the assumption that men are unclassifiable, because practically homogeneous, which underlies modern democratic methods and all the fallacies of our equal justice, is even more alien to the Utopian mind.