Make Your Point: POSIT

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > POSIT

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

pronounce POSIT:

POZ it

Hear it.

connect this word to others:

The word posit might not be the most exciting word ever.

It won't make anyone's ears perk up.

It's not beautiful like arabesque, or playful like hemi-demi-semi, or sublime like mono no aware, or elegant yet relatable like esprit de l'escalier.

It's practical, though. Like a one-page resume, or a name badge on a lanyard for a conference, the word posit is indispensable in your academic and professional life.

It resembles words like pose, position, positive, opposite, expose, deposit, ju___pose ("to place side by side"), and ___osite ("fitting, appropriate, or more literally, placed near") because they all trace back to the Latin ponere, meaning "to place, to put, to position."

Could you recall those last two words, with the blanks?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

The word "posit," closely related to the word "position," comes from a Latin word meaning "to put, to place, to situate."

When you posit things, you figuratively put them into place: you think them, assume them, guess them, or state them as part of an argument you're making.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, the transitive kind: "She posited a theory;" "Maslow posited that until your physical needs are met, you cannot focus on more abstract needs, such as the need to belong to a community."

Other forms:

posited, positing

how to use it:

When you want to say that someone argues or theorizes that something is true, but you want an ultra-formal, ultra-academic verb, say that they posit that it's true.

Even though "posit" is a common word, you'll find it only in scholarly contexts. It's handy for talking about the history of scientific thought and understanding. Like, who was the first to posit that such-and-such is true? And what wacky ideas did people posit before they grasped the true nature of reality?

Generally, that's how we use the word: we say that people posit ideas, usually about the way things work, the way things happened in the past, or the way things will happen in the future. But we can also say that theories, principles, models, books, papers and so on are positing ideas.

examples:

"[The cosmology of the Pythagoreans] was notable for positing a perfectly spherical earth either in the center of the universe, or rotating around an ideal central fire."
— Nicholas Nicastro, Circumference: Eratosthenes and the Ancient Quest to Measure the Globe, 2008

"In 1900... [Max Planck] unveiled a new 'quantum theory,' which posited that energy is not a continuous thing like flowing water but comes in individualized packets, which he called quanta."
— Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, 2003

has this page helped you understand "posit"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "posit" without saying "conjecture" or "put forth."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "Observing (something), (someone) posits that (something is going on)."

Example: "Observing how dippy and cheerful Ariel is being, her sisters posit that she's in love."

Or, to sound even more detached, focusing on observations instead of people, use the passive voice: "(Something) was posited as the cause of (some outcome)."

Example 1: "Love was posited as the cause of Ariel's cheerful dippiness."

Example 2: "Starvation was posited as the most probable cause of death."
— Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "The Words are Hard, the Titles are Silly, and the Points Don't Matter!"

In each issue, try matching a given term to a silly title. For example, match the term “desultory” to the video game title “If It Moves, Shoot It!” because desultory methods are random, disorganized, and unmethodical.

If you need a definition for a term, give it a click. Scroll all the way down to see my suggested matches. Give yourself a point for each match you make that matches my match! And give yourself two points for any match that mismatches mine, as long as you can make up some reason for your match, no matter how half-baked.

Try these today:

Terms:
A. chimerical
B. Sprachgefühl
C. Zugzwang

Titles of movies:
1. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
2. Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
3. John Dies at the End

review this word:

1. The opposite of POSIT is

A. NEGATE.
B. ADJUST.
C. DEPOSIT.

2. The word "posit" works well as a super-scholarly synonym of "____;" for example, here's Peter Marks with the Washington Post: "_____."

A. cover .. There are more than a dozen performers... positing country standards such as Randy Travis's 'I Told You So'
B. suggest .. The play posits, though, that what [the drag performers] most fervently might be seeking is assurance that they can be themselves
C. bulldoze .. There are so many things to dislike about Robert Moses, the single-minded city planner who posited 20th-century New York into submission

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > POSIT Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to "Make Your Point" for a daily vocabulary boost.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > POSIT

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.