premise

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A proposition upon which an argument is based or from which a conclusion is drawn.
• noun One of the propositions in a deductive argument.
• noun Either the major or the minor proposition of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is drawn.
• noun Land, the buildings on it, or both the land and the buildings on it.
• noun A building or particular portion of a building.
• noun Law The part of a deed that states the details of the conveyance of the property.
• intransitive verb To provide a basis for; base.
• intransitive verb To state or assume as a proposition in an argument.
• intransitive verb To state in advance as an introduction or explanation.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A judgment causing another judgment; a proposition belief in which leads to the belief in another proposition called a conclusion; a proposition from which, with or without others, something is inferred or concluded.
• noun A condition set forth; a supposition.
• noun plural In law, what has been stated before or above (in a document); the aforesaid.
• noun Hence plural The subject of a conveyance; lands and houses or tenements; a house or building and the outhouses and places belonging to it.
• To set forth or make known beforehand, as introductory to the main subject; offer previously, as something to explain or aid in understanding what follows; lay down as an antecedent proposition.
• To send before the time.
• To state premises; preface an argument or other discourse with premises.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb obsolete To send before the time, or beforehand; hence, to cause to be before something else; to employ previously.
• transitive verb To set forth beforehand, or as introductory to the main subject; to offer previously, as something to explain or aid in understanding what follows; especially, to lay down premises or first propositions, on which rest the subsequent reasonings.
• noun A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition.
• noun (Logic) Either of the first two propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is drawn.
• noun (Law) Matters previously stated or set forth; esp., that part in the beginning of a deed, the office of which is to express the grantor and grantee, and the land or thing granted or conveyed, and all that precedes the habendum; the thing demised or granted.
• noun A piece of real estate; a building and its adjuncts
• intransitive verb To make a premise; to set forth something as a premise.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition.
• noun logic Any of the first propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is deduced.
• noun usually plural, law Matters previously stated or set forth; esp., that part in the beginning of a deed, the office of which is to express the grantor and grantee, and the land or thing granted or conveyed, and all that precedes the habendum; the thing demised or granted.
• noun usually plural A piece of real estate; a building and its adjuncts (in this sense, used most often in the plural form).
• verb To state or assume something as a proposition to an argument
• verb To make a premise

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb set forth beforehand, often as an explanation
• verb furnish with a preface or introduction
• noun a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn
• verb take something as preexisting and given