premize

Premize is not a standard technical term in logic or linguistics. In most uses, it is simply a variant spelling or misspelling of the more common word premise. Because of this, reliable references typically treat premize as not having a separate, widely recognized meaning outside of the standard sense of premise.

In logic, a premise is a proposition or statement that is intended to support a conclusion within an argument. Premises provide the evidence or rationale from which a conclusion is inferred. For example, in the argument “All humans are mortal; Socrates is a human; therefore, Socrates is mortal,” the first two sentences are premises and the third is the conclusion. Premises can be statements, assumptions, or given facts that the argument relies on.

There are related spelling variants and related terms that can cause confusion. Premises (with an s) is the plural form used for a physical property or land, as in “the company’s premises.” Premiss (with double s) is an older or regional variant commonly used in British English to mean the same thing as premise when referring to a logical proposition. In American usage, premise is preferred for both the singular proposition and the general idea of an assertion, while premises remains the plural noun for property.

Etymology traces the word to Middle English premisse and Old French premisse, from Latin premissa “things that have been set forth,” itself related to a sense of being put forth or sent forward.