Noun

(en noun)

A fundamental principle or skill, especially in a field of learning (often in the plural).

We learn the rudiments of thermodynamics next week.

* Shakespeare

This boy is forest-born, / And hath been tutored in the rudiments / Of many desperate studies.

Something in an undeveloped form (often in the plural).

I have the rudiments of an escape plan.

* Milton

But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit / Those rudiments , and see before thine eyes / The monarchies of the earth.

* I. Taylor

The single leaf is the rudiment of beauty in landscape.

(biology) A body part that no longer has a function

(music) In percussion, one of a selection of basic drum patterns learned as an exercise.

Noun

(uncountable) The act of offering (an idea) for consideration.

(countable) An idea or a plan offered.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.}}

(countable, business settings) The terms of a transaction offered.

(countable, US, politics) In some states, a proposed statute or constitutional amendment to be voted on by the electorate.

(countable, logic) The content of an assertion that may be taken as being true or false and is considered abstractly without reference to the linguistic sentence that constitutes the assertion.

(countable, mathematics) An assertion so formulated that it can be considered true or false.

(countable, mathematics) An assertion which is provably true, but not important enough to be called a theorem.

A statement of religious doctrine; an article of faith; creed.

the propositions of Wyclif and Huss

* Jeremy Taylor

Some persons change their propositions according as their temporal necessities or advantages do turn.

(poetry) The part of a poem in which the author states the subject or matter of it.