"premise" in the noun sense
1. premise, premiss, assumption
a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn
"on the assumption that he has been injured we can infer that he will not play"
"premise" in the verb sense
1. premise
set forth beforehand, often as an explanation
"He premised these remarks so that his readers might understand"
2. precede, preface, premise, introduce
furnish with a preface or introduction
"She always precedes her lectures with a joke"
"He prefaced his lecture with a critical remark about the institution"
3. premise, premiss
take something as preexisting and given
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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