predicate: Meaning and Definition of

pred•i•cate

Pronunciation: (v.pred'i-kāt"adj., n.pred'i-kit), [key]
— v., adj., n. -cat•ed, -cat•ing,
—v.t.
  1. to proclaim; declare; affirm; assert.
    1. to affirm or assert (something) of the subject of a proposition.
    2. to make (a term) the predicate of such a proposition.
  2. to connote; imply: His retraction predicates a change of attitude.
  3. to found or derive (a statement, action, etc.); base (usually fol. by on): He predicated his behavior on his faith in humanity.
—v.i.
  1. to make an affirmation or assertion.
—adj.
  1. predicated.
  2. belonging to the predicate: a predicate noun.
—n.
  1. (in many languages, as English) a syntactic unit that functions as one of the two main constituents of a simple sentence, the other being the subject, and that consists of a verb, which in English may agree with the subject in number, and of all the words governed by the verb or modifying it, the whole often expressing the action performed by or the state attributed to the subject, as is here in Larry is here.
  2. that which is affirmed or denied concerning the subject of a proposition.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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