Search the Dictionary

suppose beforehand; to imply as antecedent; to take for granted; to assume; as, creation presupposes a creator. Each [kind of knowledge] presupposes many necessary things learned in other sciences, and known beforehand. Hooker.

Applied to knowledge and conceptions assumed, or presupposed, as prior to experience, in order to make experience rational or possible. A priori, that is, form these necessities of the mind or forms of thinking, which, though first revealed to us by experience, must yet have preëxisted in order to make experience possi…

n a statement made by another, and distinguishable from a confession in that an admission presupposes prior inquiry by another, but a confession may be made without such inquiry.

That which is presupposed; a previous supposition or surmise.

seditious angel, to receive Thy merited reward. Milton. Rewards and punishments do always presuppose something willingly done well or ill. Hooker.

het of the ancient Persians, which was the national faith of Persia; mazdeism. The system presupposes a good spirit (Ormuzd) and an opposing evil spirit (Ahriman). Cf. Fire worship, under Fire, and Parsee.