Statements

A statement is a linguistic expression that conveys information that can be assessed as true or false. In logic and philosophy, a statement (often called a proposition) expresses a claim about the world and has a truth value.

Most statements are declarative sentences; questions, commands, and exclamations are not statements. For example, The sun is shining. is a statement and can be evaluated as true or false. Some statements may be simple (a single clause) or compound, built from simpler statements using logical connectives such as and, or, not, if... then. For example, The sky is blue and the sea is calm is a compound statement.

Truth values: In classical logic, statements are either true or false. The truth value of a compound statement is determined by its components and the connective used, via truth tables. Some theories allow more than two truth values or context-dependent truth (e.g., vagueness, future contingents). The difference between the content of a statement (its proposition) and its form (the sentence expressing it) is noted in philosophy.

In practice, statements are central to reasoning, evidence, and information exchange. In mathematics and computer science, a statement often refers to a sentence that can be proven or disproven, or evaluated by a program as true or false.