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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Postulate

Pōst'ū-late, n.

noun

n. [Lat. postulatum, It. postulato, Sp. postulado, Fr. postulat. See infra.]

Sense 1. A position or supposition assumed without proof, or one which is considered as self-evident, or too plain to require illustration; a truth to which assent may be demanded or challenged, without argument or evidence.

Sense 2. (Geom.) The enunciation of a self-evident problem, in distinction from an axiom, which is the enunciation of a self-evident theorem.

Math. Dict.

The distinction between a postulate and an axiom lies in this,—that the latter is admitted to be self-evident, while the former may be agreed upon between two reasoners, and admitted by both, but not as a proposition which it would be impossible to deny. Eng. Cyc.

Pŏst'ū-lāte, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. POSTULATED; p. pr. & vb. n. POSTULATING.] [Lat. postulare, postulatum, to demand, from poscere, to ask for urgently; It. postulare, Sp. & Pr. postular, Fr. postuler.]

Sense 1. To beg or assume without proof. [Rare.]

Sense 2. To take without positive consent; to assume.

The Byzantine emperors appear to have exercised, or at least to have postulated, a sort of paramount supremacy over this nation. Tooke.

Sense 3. To require by entreaty; to invite earnestly; to solicit. Burnet.