How to Use presuppose in a Sentence

presuppose

verb
  • The rule presupposes a need to restrict student access to the library.
  • All statements by conscious beings presuppose both the laws of logic and the free will of the speaker.
    WSJ, 15 Aug. 2022
  • Searching for the truth presupposes that there is something to look for.
    William A. Galston, WSJ, 21 Aug. 2018
  • That, of course, presupposes that the public had not already been warned.
    Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 2 Aug. 2019
  • But that presupposes one thing: that Trump is guilty of something.
    Martin Finucane, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Of course, that presupposes that women on the force are treated like officers, not props.
    Amanda Erickson, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2017
  • This model presupposes a certain amount of waste and spending on weapons that may never be used.
    Mark Olshaker, Fortune, 20 Apr. 2020
  • This question presupposes that sports team owners belong in a pantheon — a temple of the gods.
    Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 June 2018
  • But notice, both of those descriptions are ones that presuppose there’s a direction of time.
    Quanta Magazine, 16 May 2017
  • This view presupposes conflict and implies that the only way to deal with large carnivores is to kill or remove them.
    Vidya Athreya, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2023
  • The complication, though, is that the logic presupposes the Royals still have all the right stuff and that there is some beast within that inevitably will awaken.
    Vahe Gregorian, kansascity.com, 1 May 2017
  • The liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done.
    David Remnick, The New Yorker, 4 July 2019
  • The problem presupposes that consciousness is like a light switch: either an animal has a self or it doesn’t.
    Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2017
  • As things stand, the cost of using Carbon Engineering’s kit to scrub 8bn-10bn tonnes of CO2 per year, as the climate models presuppose, would run to trillions of dollars.
    The Economist, 7 June 2018
  • What can be a progressive tool in the fight for racial unity presupposes that both sides are entering it with, at the very least, a basic knowledge of basic facts on the subject.
    Lincoln Anthony Blades, Teen Vogue, 6 Feb. 2018
  • There’s so much unknown, and so many of them presuppose that teams can fill five or six holes in a single cycle when the past tells us that getting three long-term starters in one class constitutes great work by any team.
    Albert Breer, The MMQB, 30 Apr. 2017
  • The plan presupposes that the Holy Land’s noxious politics have simply vanished.
    The Economist, 27 June 2019
  • But there is no way to reconcile, much less calibrate, the creation of a tribunal that presupposes Russian regime change with U.S. war aims, which very plainly disavow that goal.
    Rebecca Hamilton, Foreign Affairs, 12 July 2023
  • One potential sticking point in the comparison could be the fact that treason in Germany is sometimes thought to presuppose the threat of physical violence against the state.
    Jefferson Chase, USA TODAY, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Benatar also presupposes that his critics will contend that the good in life is sufficient to neutralize the bad, and that not giving potential beings the gift of life is its own kind of harm.
    Elizabeth Barber, Harper's Magazine, 2 Feb. 2024
  • Onward presupposes that Earth's history is rich with dragons, wizards, elves, fairies, unicorns, centaurs, and the like.
    Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 6 Mar. 2020
  • Perhaps even more disturbing than Mnuchin‘s declaration that the tax plan will pay for itself presupposing X, Y, and Z, is that line about welfare reform.
    Bess Levin, The Hive, 11 Dec. 2017
  • Such an argument presupposes that the show’s lens is meritocratic, too, in ways that align with and valorize Logan’s success.
    Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 29 May 2023
  • Science’s quest for knowledge about reality presupposes the importance of truth, both as an end in itself and as a means of resolving problems.
    Kathleen Higgins, Scientific American, 5 Dec. 2016
  • The people that are part of my life presuppose dignity and respect as foundational in every one of their relationships.
    NBC News, 19 Apr. 2018
  • The bloc also says that access to the single market presupposes acceptance of EU laws, regulations and standards.
    Nikos Chrysoloras, Bloomberg.com, 31 Aug. 2017
  • And yet, the narrative peddled by Trump and his courtiers conveniently presupposes that Republicans didn’t start losing big at the ballot box until the summer of 2022.
    Noah Rothman, National Review, 17 Jan. 2024
  • But all this presupposes a kind of bureaucratic enforcement that is incipient at best in 1800.
    Robert Sullivan, Vogue, 30 Nov. 2018
  • All this matters because the models engineers rely on to build resilience into roads, buildings, bridges, dams and levees have tended to presuppose that the climate of the recent past represents the climate of the foreseeable future.
    The Economist, 31 Aug. 2017
  • Winning records in the regular season do not presuppose postseason success.
    Jori Epstein, USA TODAY, 4 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'presuppose.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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