pon-, posit-, pos-, -poning, -poned, -ponency, -ponent, -ponement, -pound
(Latin: to place, to put, to set; placement, positioning)
2. In geology, the principle that in a sequence of sedimentary strata, the oldest layer is located on the bottom and it is followed in turn by successively younger layers, on up to the top of the sequence of layers: During the process of superpositions, sediments are deposited on the sea floor in horizontal layers, parallel to the Earth's surface so that the oldest layer is on the bottom with each of the younger layers resting on top.
Another geological explanation of the principle of superposition states that in a sequence of sedimentary rocks or lavas, each layer is younger than the layer beneath it and older than the one above it.
2. To introduce an idea or a concept: Doug asked his wife, "Suppose we ask our banker how we should invest our money?"
3. To believe that something is true: June told her husband that she thought the plumber would charge more than they had supposed.
2. That which is generally considered or believed to be correct, but which is not necessarily accurate: College and university students have had a supposed confidence that it would be easy to find a good job just before or reasonably soon after graduating.
Too many military officials have lived with the supposition that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could be won; however, their suppositions have resulted in more deaths of civilians and military personnel than anyone could have anticipated and victory is no longer considered a possibility.
The police only had suppositional knowledge as to who was responsible for the murder.
2. A substitution for the real thing; not genuine: She was a more supposititious candidate for congress than her political backers had anticipated.
Suppositories are especially useful in babies, in uncooperative patients, and in patients who easily vomit or who have certain digestive disorders.
2. Etymology: from Medieval Latin suppositorium and Late Latin suppositorius, "placed underneath or up"; from Latin suppositus, past participle of supponere, "to put" or "to place under".When Jack L., the author, wrote about two of the characters in his novel, the Susan, the editor, noticed that every once in awhile, the writer was mistakenly transposing their names.
2. To move to a different place or context: The teacher pointed out that James had misspelled the word "strength" as "strenght" on his paper; so, she suggested that he correct it by transposing the last two letters to make the spelling correct.3. To write or to perform a musical composition in a key other than the original or given key: Since Janet was a soprano, the piece she was supposed to sing had to be transposed higher from C major to E major.
2. The placing of something in a different setting, or the recasting of something in a different language, style, or medium: It is said that the Chinese dragon is a transposition of the serpent.
3. The rewriting or playing of a piece of music in a key or at a pitch other than the original or usual key or pitch: The orchestra played various transpositions that had been changed from their original compositions.
4. In mathematics, the changing of the order of a set of things or arranging in different orders: The transpositions of a, b, and c are abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, and cba.
By subtracting 2 from both sides of the equation 2 + x = 4, a person can have a transposition that moves 2 to the other side, resulting in x = 4 - 2, which makes x equal 2.
5. A transfer of a DNA segment to a new place on the same or another chromosome: The transposition of a gene or set of genes goes from one DNA position to another one.In the Wicked Bible, that was published as a version of the King James Bible in 1631, there was a transpositional "blank", or deletion, in place of the word "not". The result of this transpositional error resulted in the commandment saying "Thou shalt commit adultery" instead of "Thou shalt not commit adultery.
In other organisms, transposons can become a permanent and even beneficial part of the genome, as in maize (corn), where transposons account for half of the genome, and in certain bacteria, where genes for antibiotic resistance can spread by means of transposons.
Another explanation states that a transposon is a segment of DNA that is capable of inserting copies of itself into other DNA sections within the same cell.
Related word families intertwined with "to place, placing, to put; to add; to stay; to attach" word units: fix-; prosth-; stato-; the-, thes-.