How to use predicate in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Predicate means the part of the sentence (or clause) which states a property that a subject has or is characterized by. Example: “A propositional variable may be treated as a nullary predicate.”

Examples of predicate by meaning

nounA term of a statement, where the statement may be true or false depending on whether the thing referred to by the...

A propositional variable may be treated as a nullary predicate.
A predicate is either valid, satisfiable, or unsatisfiable.

nounAn operator, expression, or function that returns either true or false.

Predicates are usually found in a query's WHERE or HAVING clauses, though they can be located elsewhere (e.g. in CASE expressions).2000, Ken Henderson, The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN, page 128

verbTo base (on); to assert on the grounds of.

The law is what constitutes both desire and the lack on which it is predicated.1978, Michel Foucault, The Will to Knowledge, trans. Robert Hurley (Penguin 1998, page 81)

More sentences with predicate

In predicate logic, an atomic formula consists of a predicate together with its arguments, its arguments being terms.From the entry atomic formula
For example, in They appear uneasy, the property of being uneasy is predicated of (the referent of) they, which is therefore the predicand.From the entry predicand
This artwork predicates a very H SCENE immediately following this capture.2018 January 3, [anonymous], “/tg/ - Traditional Games » Thread #57240679”, in Desuarchive [originally posted on 4chan], Bibliotheca…. From the entry h
Copulant signs are, quite clearly, those signs whose immediate object is a continuous predicate.2017, Francesco Bellucci, Peirce's Speculative Grammar: Logic as Semiotics. From the entry copulant
Eliminationism is often voiced as crude “jokes,” a sense of humor inevitably predicated on venomous hatred.2016, David Neiwert, Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, →ISBN. From the entry eliminationism
Complete determination demands a comparison of the thing with the sum-total of all possible predicates.2012 -, E.E. Kleist, Judging Appearances, →ISBN. From the entry sum-total
The basic function of the copula in Japanese is to predicate, adnominalize or adverbialize nouns.2010, Bjarke Frellesvig, A History of the Japanese Language, page 94. From the entry adverbialize
Gentzen also wrote down inference rules suitable for the intuitionistic propositional and predicate calculi.2009 February 3, John C. Baez with Mike Stay, “Physics, Topology, Logic and Computation: A Rosetta Stone”, in (Please provide the book…. From the entry linear logic
Further, let's call a predicate superplural if it can be predicated of superplural terms.2008 July, Øystein Linnebo, David Nicolas, “Superplurals in English”, in Michael Clark, editor, Analysis, volume 68, number 3 (New Series…. From the entry superplural
Gerunds and gerund phrases are always nouns, so they are always predicate nominatives when used as complements.2005, Gary Lutz, Diane Stevenson, The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference, page 55. From the entry gerund
The points I have been making are one consequence of accepting the undetachability of predicates.1996, Barry Miller, A Most Unlikely God: A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Nature of God, University of Notre Dame Press. From the entry undetachability
In this case, the method examines whether predicates obey certain higher-level relations, such as transitivity or inversivity.1985 July 15, Pat Langley, Herbert A[lexander] Simon, Jan M[ikołaj] Zytkow, Douglas H. Fisher, “Some Other Discovery Systems”, in…. From the entry inversivity
In this reading predicates are construed so as radically to dispersonify their meanings.1981, Harvard English Studies - Volume 9, page 35. From the entry dispersonify
The characteristics ‘terrestrial’ and ‘two-footed’ are predicated of the species ‘man’, but not present in it.1928, E. M. Edghill, Categories, translation of original by Aristotle. From the entry moreover
On the other hand, verbs indicate incomplete sayables – predicates – that are related to actions and undergoing of actions.2015, Ana María Mora-Marquez, The Thirteenth-Century Notion of Signification, page 113. From the entry sayable
It should also be noted that they also support the view that the truth-making predicate takes plural predicates of 'mixed order'.2013, Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra, “Resemblance Nominalism, Conjunctions and Truthmakers”, in Matthew Soteriou, editor, Proceedings of the…. From the entry superplural
The complexity of VP in syntacticocentric approaches typically arises from the syntacticization of the linguistically relevant semantic predicate decompositions.2012, Jaume Mateu, “Structure of the Verb Phrase”, in José Ignacio Hualde, Antxon Olarrea, Erin O'Rourke, editors, The Handbook of…. From the entry syntacticocentric
These two treatments of the predicate are typical of the two traditions in traditional logic—the intensional and the extensional traditions.2011 July 20, Edwin Mares, “Propositional Function”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, retrieved 15 Jul 2012. From the entry logician
In narratives, discontinuative predicate focus is used when there is a topic shift, or when two referents are contrasted.2010, Ines Fiedler, Anne Schwarz, The Expression of Information Structure. From the entry discontinuative
I'm an activist, but in Kelowna I felt like my safety is predicated on silence and white middle-class homonormativity.2009, Rachel Epstein, Who's Your Daddy?: And Other Writings on Queer Parenting, page 255. From the entry homonormativity
The European demoicracy is predicated on the mutual recognition of the many European identities — not on their merger.2006, Joel Krieger, Globalization and State Power: A Reader, Longman, →ISBN. From the entry demoicracy
Like any noun, the gerund functions as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, or predicate nominative.2002, Dan Mulvey, Grammar the Easy Way, page 25. From the entry gerund
Sjostrom's game is predicated on strong skating.2001 May 22, Kyle Woodlief, “Sharp-shooting Swede Sjostrom shines”, in USA Today, retrieved 24 Jun 2011. From the entry in a heartbeat
But, here Alexander confuses the absolute predicate with relative ones.1997, Chandrakanta Sharma, Urja Utpaadan Ka Arthshastra. From the entry unvalue
All that is said about God is absolutely predicated.1997, Chandrakanta Sharma, Urja Utpaadan Ka Arthshastra. From the entry unvalue
To the extent that predicate position is an indication of adjectivity, however, soon represents no radical departure from the norm.1995, Robert Beard, Lexeme-morpheme Base Morphology. From the entry adjectivity
In general, the expression in focus is a predicate, which applies to something which is defined by the cofocus.1987, Imre Ruzsa, Anna Szabolcsi, Proceedings of the '87 Debrecen Symposium on Logic and Language. From the entry cofocus
In this case, the focus is on determining whether predicates obey certain relations, such as transitivity or inversivity.1984 September 1, Pat Langley, Jan Zytkow, Herbert A[lexander] Simon, Gary L. Bradshaw, “Comments on GLAUBER”, in The Search for…. From the entry inversivity
Yet such predicates will not in general even be interpreted over the domain of objects over which the definientia range.1977, Nelson Goodman, The Structure of Appearance, 3rd edition, D. Reidel, →ISBN, page XLIV. From the entry definiens
It is not practical with pure verbal predicates.1973, Wilhelm Wundt, The Language of Gestures. From the entry foreposition
Such predicates are known as monadic, or one-place, predicates.1965 G. E. Hughes and D. G. Londey: The Elements of Formal Logic p.270. From the entry dyadic
To the man who stands belongingly in this continuum, no event that may be predicated of him is inappropriate.1961, John Berry, Flight of White Crows: Stories, Tales, and Paradoxes, Macmillan, page 183. From the entry belongingly
The essence of the objections raised by such individuals is largely of jealous derivation or is predicated upon purely economic malreasoning.1937, The Journal of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, page 41. From the entry malreasoning
Moreover, the definition of the differentia may be predicated of that of which the differentia itself is predicated.1928, E. M. Edghill, Categories, translation of original by Aristotle. From the entry moreover
The action of Rebeca Thorne is predicated upon the attributableness of her son's death to the negligence of the defendant, Snively.1900, Dickinson Law Review, volume 5, Dickinson School of Law, page 113. From the entry attributableness
Palestine is described as an “Islamic Waqf”—an endowment predicated on Muslim religious, education, or charitable principles and therefore inviolate to any other peoples or religions.2023 October 10, Bruce Hoffman, “Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 10 Oct 2023. From the entry waqf

Meaning of predicate

noun The part of the sentence (or clause) which states a property that a subject has or is characterized by.
noun A term of a statement, where the statement may be true or false depending on whether the thing referred to by the values of the statement's variables has the property signified by that (predicative) term.
noun An operator, expression, or function that returns either true or false.

Full definition of predicate

Questions about predicate in a sentence

How do you use predicate in a sentence?: Predicate is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “A propositional variable may be treated as a nullary predicate.”
What is a short sentence with predicate?: “Sjostrom's game is predicated on strong skating.”
What does predicate mean?: Predicate means the part of the sentence (or clause) which states a property that a subject has or is characterized by.

Adapted from Wiktionary: predicate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use predicate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/predicate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.