What's the difference?

[MissCommando]

What is the difference between assume and presume? Don't they mean the same?

[luc]

assume is to believe something will happen or to take resonsabilty for ie assume the role of chairman presume is to take for granted or take liberities, to be presumptous

[Quizmonster]

Both words have varied meanings, depending on the context in which they are used. Given your question, I guess you refer to a context in which they mean 'take it as being so'. There are the famous words: "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" which might just as easily have been: "Dr Livingstone, I assume?"

Look in any thesaurus under 'assume' and you will certainly find 'presume' as an alternative. Likewise, looking under 'presume' will certainly offer 'assume. In the sense you mean Miss C, therefore, there really is no difference.

[Bert]

Luc managed to make four mistakes in four lines. Three were spelling mistakes - possibly merely typographical errors - and the fourth was the use of i.e. when e.g. is required. Is this a record?

[mwmiles]

In the more common usage of the two words the following difference are important to note. To assume means that you have reached a conclusion or have performed an action based on a certain amount of information at your disposal, and may be regarded as a reasonable (although may be erroneous) conclusion. Presume means in effect to (jump to a conclusion based on what many people would regard as "what you would want to believe") Although many books detail the differences between the two, one of my favourites is "Dictionary of Differences" published by Paragon.