premise
Americannoun
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premises
plural
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Logic. Also premiss. a proposition supporting or helping to support a conclusion.
- Synonyms:
- postulate, assumption
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premises,
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a tract of land including its buildings.
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a building together with its grounds or other appurtenances.
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the property forming the subject of a conveyance or bequest.
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Law.
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a basis, stated or assumed, on which reasoning proceeds.
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an earlier statement in a document.
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(in a bill in equity) the statement of facts upon which the complaint is based.
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verb (used with object)
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premises,
present (3rd person singular)
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premised,
past participle, past
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premising
present participle
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to set forth beforehand, as by way of introduction or explanation.
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to assume, either explicitly or implicitly, (a proposition) as a premise for a conclusion.
- Synonyms:
- hypothesize, postulate
verb (used without object)
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premises,
present (3rd person singular)
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premised,
past participle, past
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premising
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
premisesimple
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premisessimple
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have premisedperfect
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has premisedperfect
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am premisingprogressive
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are premisingprogressive
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is premisingprogressive
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have been premisingperfect progressive
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has been premisingperfect progressive
Past
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premisedsimple
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had premisedperfect
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was premisingprogressive
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were premisingprogressive
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had been premisingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of premise
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English premiss, from Medieval Latin praemissa, noun use of feminine of Latin praemissus, past participle of praemittere “to send before,” equivalent to prae- “before, in front, ahead,” + mittere “to send”; see pre-
Explanation
A premise is what forms the basis of a theory or a plot. When you called 911 on the guy in your back yard, it was on the premise that he was a thief and not the meter-reader. In logic, the premise is the basic statement upon whose truth an argument is based. Criticize alternative theories by demonstrating their false premises. In a more general sense, it's a basic assertion. On the premise that people are generally good, you keep your doors unlocked. Premise is also used more loosely for the starting point for a plot. A movie's premise could be that two people trapped on a desert island will inevitably fall in love.
Vocabulary lists containing premise
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Argumentative Writing
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I have spent five decades trading on a simple premise: Markets aggregate information no committee possesses, and prices are how that information reaches decision makers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Dave’s Hot Chicken has adopted a similar premise for its spicier entry into the market, but for many Caniacs, nothing beats the stripped-down glory of the original.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
Under that premise, the role should go to a candidate from Latin America this time.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
Panettiere gave a likeably sparky performance as Claire, a cheerleader who regenerated if she was physically harmed, and who was at the heart of the show's "save the cheerleader, save the world" premise.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
But as author Cameron McWhirter has written, “In 1919, blacks began to broadly challenge the long-held premise that they must exist in this country as inferiors.”
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
He pointed out cracks in the premises that he said were caused by underground blasting.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
That, combined with big upward adjustments to rateable values of pub premises, left landlords with the prospect of much higher bills.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
To set up manufacturing space on a lot zoned for retail, Leong and his wife opened Ando Café on the premises.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
The person then reportedly "panicked and left the premises" after realising what had happened, according to the Ofcom statement.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
Everything on the premises, she explained, was of the highest quality.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
But he premised his conclusion only on statutory grounds; specifically, the Nationality Act of 1940.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
Trademarks, unlike copyrights or patents, are intellectual property that are not premised on creating value for whoever registers them; they’re about protecting consumers.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026
The policy was originally premised on the SEC’s statutory authority “to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary or appropriate” to enforce securities laws.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
He also rejected the notion that he would do Big Tech’s bidding, and the idea that his support from tech leaders is entirely or even largely premised on his plans for their industry.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
The entire modern world was premised on the ability to buy now and pay later.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Feinstein, who is well known for her opposition to drones, is premising her legislation on safety concerns.
From Forbes ● Dec. 3, 2014
One of his most premising innovations was a new Secretariat for non-Christian religions; but Paul entrusted the project to a Curia professional, Paolo Cardinal Marella, and almost nothing has been heard of it since.
From Time Magazine Archive
Now, if you graft your ideas on to another's, premising that his views were crude and primitive, the result will be somewhat mixed.
From A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed. by William Chauncey Bartlett
It will be not unpleasant to linger a little over this phase of his character, premising, for lucidity, that in all London could not be found a brighter, more agreeable day-dreamer.
From Miser Farebrother, Volume I (of 3) A Novel by Benjamin Leopold Farjeon
I subjoin the original text, premising that, instead of Herthum, certain MSS. read Nerthum.
From The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.