postulate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make claim for; demand.
2. v. To assume or assert the truth, reality, or necessity of, especially as a basis of an argument.
3. v. To assume as a premise or axiom; take for granted. See Synonyms at presume.
4. n. Something assumed without proof as being self-evident or generally accepted, especially when used as a basis for an argument: "the postulate that there is little moral difference between the superpowers” ( Henry A. Kissinger).
5. n. A fundamental element; a basic principle.
6. n. Mathematics An axiom.
7. n. A requirement; a prerequisite.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To invite; solicit; require by entreaty. See def. 3.
2. To assume without proof; lay down as something which has to be assumed, although it cannot be proved; take for granted.
3. In ecclesiastical law, to ask legitimate ecclesiastical authority to admit (a nominee) by dispensation, when a canonical impediment is supposed to exist. Lee, Glossary.
4. To make postulates or demands; urge a suit.
5. n. A petition; a suit; solicitation.
6. n. A proposition proposed for acceptance without proof; something taken for granted; an assumption. Thus, the postulates of Euclid were as follows: that a straight line may be drawn between any two points; that any terminated straight line may be produced indefinitely; that about any point as a center a circle with any radius may be described; that all right angles are equal; that if two straight lines lying in a plane are met by another line, making the sum of the internal angles on one side less than two right angles, then those straight lines will meet, if sufficiently produced, on the side on which the sum of the angles is less than two right angles. See axiom.
7. n. A self-evident practical proposition, to the effect that something is possible: opposed to an axiom, as a self-evident proposition that something is impossible. The fourth and fifth of Euclid's postulates (see def. 2) being converted into axioms in the modern editions, and his proved propositions being distinguished into theorems and problems, this new conception of a postulate naturally arose.
8. n. A condition for the accomplishment of anything.
9. Postulated; assumed.

Wiktionary

1. n. Something assumed without proof as being self-evident or generally accepted, especially when used as a basis for an argument.
2. n. A fundamental element; a basic principle.
3. n. An axiom.
4. n. A requirement; a prerequisite.
5. v. To assume as a truthful or accurate premise or axiom, especially as a basis of an argument.
6. v. To appoint or request one's appointment to an ecclesiastical office.
7. v. To request, demand or claim for oneself.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Something demanded or asserted; especially, a position or supposition assumed without proof, or one which is considered as self-evident; a truth to which assent may be demanded or challenged, without argument or evidence.
2. n. The enunciation of a self-evident problem, in distinction from an axiom, which is the enunciation of a self-evident theorem.
3. adj. Postulated.
4. v. To beg, or assume without proof.
5. v. To take without express consent; to assume.
6. v. To invite earnestly; to solicit.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (logic) a proposition that is accepted as true in order to provide a basis for logical reasoning
2. v. take as a given; assume as a postulate or axiom
3. v. maintain or assert
4. v. require as useful, just, or proper