Learn English – Antonym of “assume” or; a synonym of “assume” and its antonym

antonymsmodal-verbspresent-tensesynonymsverbs

As the title implies, I am looking for a good, simple, single word antonym of "assume". Alternatively, if no good antonym exists that satisfies the requirements below, I am also open to suggestions for a synonym of "assume" and its antonym.

EDIT: the definition of "assume" here is that of "belief".

The specific context is as a function name in a programming language, where the user can, for instance, assume X is zero. The antonym must follow the same pattern, i. e., _ X is zero and ideally be an "obvious" partner, i. e., when reading it should be clear to most people that it undoes the assumption.

EDIT: this is for symbolic manipulation, not a variable binding. Assuming X is zero is a very different concept from binding X to a value that is zero—the latter is a much stronger assumption. This is also not an assertion, i. e., checking whether the assumption holds. In all the cases I have encountered in the literature, the antonym is either always implicit, or negated by use of something akin to "if we no longer assume X".

I looked in a thesaurus, and the only good candidate I could find was "forget". The problem with this word is that I don't think it is immediately clear that it undoes an assumption, and I would struggle to remember it (ironically). Another word that I have considered is, "unassume". It is not in any dictionary, but I think it is fairly obvious from the context what it means, and I find it memorable.

Best Answer

Using assume in the sense that you are is the equivalent of its fourth sense from Merriam-Webster:

4 : to take as granted or true : SUPPOSE
// I assume he'll be there.

In other words, you simply accept something as fact. Even if you don't necessarily believe it to be true, you act as if it were true.

While forget is an interesting candidate for its opposite, I don't think it's as accurate as something else.

When you assume something, you are accepting it without question.

Therefore, it seems reasonable that question would be the antonym:

[Merriam-Webster]

1 : to ask a question of or about
2 : to interrogate intensively : CROSS-EXAMINE
3a : DOUBT, DISPUTE
b : to subject to analysis : EXAMINE

So, you might say something like the following:

On the contrary! Rather than assume those facts, I urge you to question them.

Or:

I question the truth of his statement.

Or in your specific case:

I question if X is actually zero.

Depending on the specific context and your intent, a synonym of question (the words in capitals in the definition) could also be used.

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