implication

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én

Proto-Italic *en

Proto-Italic *en-

Latin in-

Proto-Indo-European *pel-

Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ-der.

Latin plicō

Latin implicō

Proto-Indo-European *-tis

Proto-Indo-European *-Hō

Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō

Proto-Italic *-tiō

Latin -tiō

Latin implicātiōnemder.

Middle French implicationder.

English implication

From Middle French implication, from Latin implicationem (accusative of implicatio). Equivalent to implicate +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

implication (countable and uncountable, plural implications)

2. (uncountable) The act of implicating.
4. (uncountable) The state of being implicated.
6. (countable) A possible, or indirect, effect or result of a decision or action.

   Dumping waste in the river will have serious implications for the environment.

   • 2021 April 23, Ronald Brownstein, “The racist ‘replacement theory’ has it all backward”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     And while that number is expected to shift back slightly into positive territory over this decade, fewer children today establishes an unmistakable implication for tomorrow: fewer adults available as consumers, workers and taxpayers.

   • 2024 February 5, Stephen Collinson, “Trump’s legal battles are at a critical moment with major implications for the 2024 election”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     With his legal maneuverings, Trump is showing that he also understands the implications of this election — one that could give him substantial powers as president to defray or dismiss many of the legal threats that he’s facing and to behave in office without future accountability.

7. (countable, uncountable) An implying, or that which is implied, but not expressed; an inference, or something which may fairly be understood, though not expressed in words.
   • 2011, Lance J. Rips, Lines of Thought: Central Concepts in Cognitive Psychology, page 168:

     But we can also take a more analytical attitude to these displays, interpreting the movements as no more than approachings, touchings, and departings with no implication that one shape caused the other to move.

9. (countable, logic) The connective in propositional calculus that, when joining two predicates A and B in that order, has the meaning "if A is true, then B is true".
10. Logical consequence. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• implicational
• material implication
• misimplication
• nonimplication
• strict implication

Related terms

• implicate
• implicative
• implicature
• implicit
• implicitness
• imply

Translations

possible effect or result of a decision or action

• Afrikaans: gevolg (af), uitwerking
• Esperanto: implicaĵo (eo)
• German: Auswirkung (de) f, Folge (de) f, Tragweite (de) f, Bedeutung (de) f
• Italian: implicazione (it) f, risvolto (it) m
• Swedish: följd (sv) c, konsekvens (sv) c

that which is implied, but not expressed

• Afrikaans: implikasie
• Bulgarian: подтекст m (podtekst)
• Dutch: implicatie (nl)
• German: Andeutung (de) f
• Greek: υπονοούμενο (el) n (yponooúmeno), υποκείμενο συμπέρασμα (ypokeímeno sympérasma), υποκείμενη συνέπεια (ypokeímeni synépeia)
• Irish: impleacht (ga) f
• Italian: implicazione (it) f
• Malay: implikasi
• Russian: намёк (ru) m (namjók)
• Serbo-Croatian: implikacija (sh), dublji smisao, dublje značenje
• Spanish: precesión (es) f, reticencia (es) f, aposiopesis (es) f
• Turkish: bulaştırma, ima (tr), dolaylı anlatım (tr)
• Ukrainian: підте́кст (pidtékst)

logical connective

• Arabic: تَلَازُم (talāzum)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 含意 (zh) (hányì), 意味 (zh) (yìwèi), 含義 / 含义 (zh) (hányì), 涵義 / 涵义 (zh) (hányì)

• Czech: implikace f
• Esperanto: implikacio
• Finnish: implikaatio (fi)
• German: Folge (de) f, Schlussfolgerung (de) f
• Hungarian: implikáció (hu)
• Indonesian: implikasi (id)
• Italian: connessione (it) f
• Japanese: 含意 (ja) (gan'i)
• Macedonian: импликација f (implikacija), следство n (sledstvo)
• Malay: implikasi
• Russian: имплика́ция (ru) f (implikácija)
• Serbo-Croatian: implikacija (sh)
• Turkish: akıl yürütme (tr), gerektirme (tr), istidlal (tr)
• Ukrainian: імпліка́ція (implikácija)

logical consequence

• Afrikaans: gevolg (af)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蘊涵 / 蕴涵 (zh) (yùnhán), 蘊含 / 蕴含 (zh) (yùnhán)

• French: implication (fr)
• German: Folge (de) f
• Italian: implicazione (it), conseguenza (it)
• Māori: hīraunga
• Persian: پیامد (peyâmad)
• Portuguese: implicação (pt)
• Spanish: implicación (es)

Further reading

• “implication”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “implication”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin implicātiō. By surface analysis, impliquer +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pli.ka.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

implication f (plural implications)

1. involvement
2. implication

Further reading

• “implication”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012