Meaning & use
faulty assumption
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A belief taken as true that is actually wrong, often leading to bad decisions or errors.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a faulty assumption or several faulty assumptions.
Patterns
- make a faulty assumption
- base something on a faulty assumption
- work from a faulty assumption
The whole plan failed because it rested on a faulty assumption about how much customers would pay.
If you start with a faulty assumption, every conclusion after it will be unreliable.
The report was criticized for making a faulty assumption that all users have fast internet.
Word forms
| plural | faulty assumptions |
|---|
Common combinations
- a common faulty assumption
- A common faulty assumption is that young people do not read books.
- question a faulty assumption
- Good researchers question every faulty assumption in the argument.
- reveal a faulty assumption
- The experiment revealed a faulty assumption in the original theory.
- correct a faulty assumption
- The teacher gently corrected a faulty assumption about the speed of light.
Synonyms and how they differ
- misconception
- A misconception is a wrong idea someone holds; a faulty assumption is specifically something taken as a starting point for reasoning.
- false premise
- False premise is more formal and often used in logic; faulty assumption is common in everyday and business writing.
Opposites
Word family
- assume verb
- To believe something is true without proof.
- assumption noun
- A belief accepted as true without proof.
Commonly confused: faulty assumption or faulty?
faulty assumption vs faulty
Faulty means 'not working correctly or containing mistakes'; it is not a noun. Do not write 'a faulty' when you mean 'a faulty assumption'.
Practice
The manager's decision was based on a ______ that employees would not mind working weekends.
Choose one answer.
The phrase needs a noun after 'a'; 'faulty assumption' is the correct countable noun phrase. 'Faulty assuming' is not a standard noun, and 'fault assumption' and 'faulty assume' are not grammatical.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “faulty assumption”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.