PROPOSAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does proposal mean? 

• PROPOSAL (noun)
  The noun PROPOSAL has 3 senses:

1. something proposed (such as a plan or assumption)

2. an offer of marriage

3. the act of making a proposal

  Familiarity information: PROPOSAL used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROPOSAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something proposed (such as a plan or assumption)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("proposal" is a kind of...):

content; message; subject matter; substance (what a communication that is about something is about)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "proposal"):

advice (a proposal for an appropriate course of action)

counterproposal (a proposal offered as an alternative to an earlier proposal)

hypothesis (a proposal intended to explain certain facts or observations)

proffer; proposition; suggestion (a proposal offered for acceptance or rejection)

introduction (a new proposal)

re-introduction (a proposal of something previously rejected)

motion; question (a formal proposal for action made to a deliberative assembly for discussion and vote)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An offer of marriage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

marriage offer; marriage proposal; proposal; proposal of marriage

Hypernyms ("proposal" is a kind of...):

offer; offering (something offered (as a proposal or bid))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "proposal"):

question (an informal reference to a marriage proposal)

Derivation:

propose (ask (someone) to marry you)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of making a proposal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

proposal; proposition

Context example:

they listened to her proposal

Hypernyms ("proposal" is a kind of...):

speech act (the use of language to perform some act)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "proposal"):

presentation (the act of presenting a proposal)

Derivation:

propose (make a proposal, declare a plan for something)

 Context examples 

Harriet was soon back again, and the proposal almost immediately made; and she had no scruples which could stand many minutes against the earnest pressing of both the others.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

If you are ready to wed, many Cancers will be surprised by a proposal before the year is out.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Fanny was startled at the proposal.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

What sort of proposal is that to make a man?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His idea, for which the novels were responsible, had been that only formal proposals obtained in the upper classes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She must absolutely decline the proposal.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A tentative proposal made to explain certain observations or facts that requires further investigation to be verified.

(Hypothesis, NCI Dictionary)

When you became engaged to the young lady whom you have just mentioned, did you make a regular proposal to her family?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The release of the raw, uncalibrated data collected will aid astronomers in preparing proposals due this month to use telescopes on Earth next winter to further investigate TRAPPIST-1.

(NASA's Kepler Provides Another Peek at Ultra-cool Neighbor, NASA)

If we were not related, it would not signify; but as cousins, she would feel scrupulous as to any proposal of ours.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)