Noun

Wikipedia

Singular proposition

Plural countable and uncountable; plural propositions

proposition (countable and uncountable; plural propositions)

1. (uncountable) The act of offering (an idea) for consideration.
2. (countable) An idea or a plan offered.
3. (countable, business settings) The terms of a transaction offered.
4. (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. (countable, US, politics) In some states, a proposed statute or constitutional amendment to be voted on by the electorate.
6. (countable, mathematics) An assertion so formulated that it can be considered true or false.
7. (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)

Synonyms

• (act of offering an idea for consideration): proposal, suggestion
• (idea or plan offered): proposal, suggestion
• (terms offered): proposal
• (content of an assertion): statement
• (proposed statute or constitutional amendment):

A proposition (often simply called a claim) is a sentence expressing something true or false. In philosophy, particularly in logic, a proposition is identified ontologically as an idea, concept, or abstraction whose token instances are patterns of symbols, marks, sounds, or strings of words. Propositions are considered to be syntactic entities and also truthbearers.

The existence of propositions in the abstract sense, as well as the existence of "meanings", is disputed by some philosophers. Where the concept of a "meaning" is admitted, its nature is controversial. In earlier texts writers have not always made it sufficiently clear whether they are using the term proposition in sense of the words or the "meaning" expressed by the words. To avoid the controversies and ontological implications, the term sentence is often now used instead of proposition to refer to just those strings of symbols that are truthbearers, being either true or false under an interpretation. Strawson advocated the use of the term "statement".

Historical usage