prooftext
prooftext noun: a decontextualized quotation from a document (often, but not always, a book of the Bible) to establish a proposition rhetorically through an appeal to authority.
Noun
prooftext (plural prooftexts)
- A decontextualized quotation from a document (often, but not always, a book of the Bible) to establish a proposition rhetorically through an appeal to authority.
Verb
prooftext (third-person singular simple present prooftexts, present participle prooftexting, simple past and past participle prooftexted)
- To use decontextualized quotations from a document (often, but not always, a book of the Bible) to establish a proposition rhetorically through an appeal to authority.
Forms of prooftext
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | prooftexts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | prooftexts |
| present participle | prooftexting |
| past participle | prooftexted |
| past | prooftexted |
Origin of prooftext
From proof + text.
Questions about prooftext
- What does prooftext mean?
- Prooftext means a decontextualized quotation from a document (often, but not always, a book of the Bible) to establish a proposition rhetorically through an appeal to authority.
- What part of speech is prooftext?
- Prooftext can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of prooftext?
- The plural of prooftext is prooftexts.
Words near prooftext in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prooftext (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “prooftext.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prooftext. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.