Word.ws English Dictionary

heptalemma

/ˌhɛptəˈlɛmə/

heptalemma noun: a figure that gives an exhaustive enumeration of seven possibilities in a specified situation.

Noun

heptalemma

  1. (rare, Indian logic) A figure that gives an exhaustive enumeration of seven possibilities in a specified situation.
    • Ṭhāṇ 3.239 offers also a trilemma: (1) to state the truth (tavvayaṇa <tadvacana>), (2) to state the untruth (tadaṇṇavayaṇa <tadanyavacana>), (3) to state something meaningless or negative (no-avayaṇa <no-avacana>); Ṭhāṇ 7.129 a heptalemma: (1) speech (ālāva <ālāpa>), (2) taciturnity (aṇ-ālāva...2010, Piotr Balcerowicz, editor, Logic and Belief in Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, Publishers, →ISBN (10), →ISBN (13), page 150

Origin of heptalemma

English hepta- (“seven”) + Ancient Greek λῆμμᾰ (lêmmă, “premise, assumption”), as in dilemma, trilemma, tetralemma, etc.

Questions about heptalemma

What does heptalemma mean?
Heptalemma means a figure that gives an exhaustive enumeration of seven possibilities in a specified situation.
What part of speech is heptalemma?
Heptalemma is a noun.
How do you pronounce heptalemma?
Heptalemma is pronounced /ˌhɛptəˈlɛmə/.

Words near heptalemma in the dictionary

  1. heptaketide
  2. heptaketides
  3. heptakis-
  4. heptaldehyde
  5. heptalead
  6. heptalemma
  7. heptalene
  8. heptalenes
  9. heptalingual
  10. heptalogies
  11. heptalogue

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heptalemma (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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