proposition

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A plan suggested for acceptance; a proposal.
2. n. A matter to be dealt with; a task: Finding affordable housing can be a difficult proposition.
3. n. An offer of a private bargain, especially a request for sexual relations.
4. n. A subject for discussion or analysis.
5. n. Logic A statement that affirms or denies something.
6. n. Logic The meaning expressed in such a statement, as opposed to the way it is expressed.
7. n. Mathematics A theorem.
8. v. To propose a private bargain to, especially to propose sexual relations with.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of placing or setting forth; the act of offering.
2. n. That which is proposed; that which is offered for consideration, acceptance, or adoption; a proposal; offer of terms: commonly in the plural: as, propositions of peace.
3. n. A representation in thought or language of an act of the mind in thinking a quality or general sign, termed a predicate, to be applicable to something indicated, and termed a subject. This connecting of predicate and subject may range from a mental necessity to a mere impulse to look at a certain possibility. These differences are called differences in the mode, or modality, of the proposition, according to which, as ordinarily slated, propositions are either de inease (that is, the mode is not considered) or modal, and in this case problematical, contingent, or apodictic. The modality may properly be said to affect the copula, or form of junction of the predicate and subject. The predicate, logically speaking, embraces the whole representation of the quality of the fact. Thus, in the proposition “Elijah was caught up to heaven,” the grammatical predicate is “was caught up to heaven”; but the logical predicate includes the whole picture which the sentence conveys — that of a man caught up to heaven. The predicate, however, is not a mere picture; it views the fact represented analytically, and distinguishes certain objects as identical with the subjects. There may be only one subject, or, if the predicate expresses a relation, there may be several. These subjects cannot be sufficiently indicated by any general description, but only by a real junction with experience, as by a finger-pointing. In ordinary language they are for the most part but imperfectly expressed. In whatever way they are represented, they can commonly (in the last analysis always) be set forth in classes only; from such a class the subject meant is to be taken in one or other of three ways: first, by a suitable selection, so as to render the proposition true; secondly, by taking any one, no matter which; thirdly, by taking no matter what one among a selected proportion of those which present themselves in experience. The first mode of selection gives a particular proposition, as “An object can be selected which is a man caught up to heaven”; the second mode gives a universal proposition, as “Take any object you please in this world, and it is not a man caught up to heaven”; the third mode gives a statistical proposition, as “Half the human beings in the world are women.” If there are several subjects, the order of their selection is often important. Thus, it is one thing to say that having taken any man you please a woman can be found who was his mother, and quite another to say that a woman can be found such that, whatever man you select, that woman was that man's mother. Several of the distinctions between propositions found in the old treatises are based on distinctions between the different categories (or, in modern logical language, universes) from which the subjects are understood to be drawn. Such is the distinction between a categorical proposition, whose subject is denoted by a noun, and a hypothetical proposition, whose subject is a hypothetical state of things denoted by a sentence. Such is also the distinction between a synthetical proposition, whose subject is drawn from the world of real experience, and may suitably be denoted by a concrete noun, and an analytic proposition, whose subject is drawn from a world of ideas, and may suitably be denoted by an abstract noun. Propositions are further distinguished according to the forms of their predicates; but these distinctions, unlike those already noticed, merely concern the form under which the proposition happens to be thought or expressed, and do not concern its substance. The predicates of propositions are either simple, negative, or compound; and in the latter case they may conveniently be considered (by a slight fiction) as either disjunctive or conjunctive.
4. n. In mathematics, a statement in terms of either a truth to be demonstrated or an operation to be performed. It is called a theorem when it is something to be proved, and a problem when it is an operation to be done. Abbreviated properly
5. n. In rhetoric, that which is offered or affirmed as the subject of the discourse; anything stated or affirmed for discussion or illustration; the first part of a poem, in which the author states the subject or matter of it: as, Horace recommends modesty and simplicity in the proposition of a poem.
6. n. In music: The act or process of enunciating or giving out a theme or subject.
7. n. Specifically — The subject of a fugue, as distinguished from the answer.
8. n. An assumption of what appears likely.
9. n. propositions de necessario quando, which stated something to be necessarily true at specified times; and.
10. n. propositions de necessario simpliciter, or categorical apodictic propositions. The latter were further divided into propositions de necessario simpliciter pro nunc, or propositions stating something to be necessarily true now, and propositions de necessario simpliciter pro semper, stating something to be always necessarily true.
11. n. Usually, a categorical proposition, or one expressed by means of a noun and a verb, as contradistinguished from a conditional proposition.
12. n. 3 and Position, thesis, statement, declaration, dictum, doctrine. Proposition differs from the words compared under subject, in that it is the technical word in rhetoric for the indication of the theme of a discourse.
13. n. Something to be done, accomplished, etc.; especially, something difficult or puzzling.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The act of offering (an idea) for consideration.
2. n. countable An idea or a plan offered.
3. n. countable, business settings The terms of a transaction offered.
4. n. countable, logic The content of an assertion that may be taken as being true or false and is considered abstractly without reference to the linguistic sentence that constitutes the assertion.
5. n. countable, US, politics In some states, a proposed statute or constitutional amendment to be voted on by the electorate.
6. n. countable, mathematics An assertion so formulated that it can be considered true or false.
7. n. countable, mathematics As a special case, textbooks often, and papers sometimes, label an assertion which is provably true, but not important enough to be a theorem, a proposition. Normally this is part of a numerical reference system (Proposition 3.2, Lemma 3.3, Theorem 3.4)
8. v. transitive To propose a plan to (someone).
9. v. transitive To propose some illicit behaviour to (someone). Often sexual in nature.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of setting or placing before; the act of offering.
2. n. That which is proposed; that which is offered, as for consideration, acceptance, or adoption; a proposal
3. n. A statement of religious doctrine; an article of faith; creed.
4. n. (Gram. & Logic) A complete sentence, or part of a sentence consisting of a subject and predicate united by a copula; a thought expressed or propounded in language; a from of speech in which a predicate is affirmed or denied of a subject.
5. n. (Math.) A statement in terms of a truth to be demonstrated, or of an operation to be performed.
6. n. (Rhet.) That which is offered or affirmed as the subject of the discourse; anything stated or affirmed for discussion or illustration.
7. n. (Poetry) The part of a poem in which the author states the subject or matter of it.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an offer for a private bargain (especially a request for sexual favors)
2. v. suggest sex to
3. n. the act of making a proposal
4. n. a proposal offered for acceptance or rejection
5. n. (logic) a statement that affirms or denies something and is either true or false
6. n. a task to be dealt with