Entry Word: assume

Function: verb

Meaning: 1 to take to or upon oneself <Josh promised to assume responsibility for any damage to the flower beds caused by the volleyball game in the backyard>

Synonyms accept, bear, shoulder, take over, undertake

Related Words adopt, embrace; back, endorse (also indorse), espouse, stand by, support, uphold; accede, acquiesce, agree, assent, consent

Near Antonyms abjure, recant, renounce, retract, take back; decline, refuse, reject, spurn, turn down; abstain, forbear, refrain; avoid, bypass, detour

Antonyms disavow, disclaim, disown, repudiate

2 to take as true or as a fact without actual proof <everyone assumed, wrongly, that someone else was bringing dessert>

Synonyms postulate, premise, presume, presuppose, suppose

Related Words accept, believe, credit, swallow; conclude, deduce, gather, judge, infer, take; conjecture, figure, guess, reckon [chiefly dialect], surmise, suspect, think; conceive, dream, fancy, imagine, perceive, preconceive; hypothesize, speculate, theorize; affirm, allege, assert, aver, avouch, avow, claim, contend, declare, insist, maintain, profess

Phrases take for granted

Near Antonyms challenge, disbelieve, discount, discredit, dispute, distrust, doubt, mistrust, question, suspect, wonder (about); deny, disavow, disclaim, disown, reject, repudiate; confute, disprove, rebut, refute

3 to form an opinion from little or no evidence <as I just assumed it was too late to go out, I didn't think to ask> — see guess 1
4 to present a false appearance of <she assumed an air of nonchalance even though she was wildly ecstatic she could go> — see feign