pred·i·cate • n. / ˈpredikət/ Gram. the part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the subject (e.g., went home in John went home): [as adj.] predicate adjective. ∎ Logic something that is affirmed or denied concerning an argument of a proposition.• v. / ˈpredəˌkāt/ [tr.] 1. Gram. & Logic state, affirm, or assert (something) about the subject of a sentence or an argument of proposition: a word which predicates something about its subject aggression is predicated of those who act aggressively.2. (predicate something on/upon) found or base something on: the theory of structure on which later chemistry was predicated.DERIVATIVES: pred·i·ca·tion / ˌpredəˈkāshən/ n.

predicate (logic and gram.) that which is asserted of the subject. XVI. — late L. prædicātum, n. pp. of prædicāre proclaim, declare, in medL. predicate, f. præ- PRE- + dicāre make known, rel. to dīcere say; see DICTION, -ATE1.
So predicate (-ATE3) assert, affirm. XVI. predication † preaching XIV; assertion, affirmation XVI. — (O)F. or L. predicative (gram.) forming the whole or part of the predicate. XIX.

PREDICATE. A traditional grammatical term for a major constituent of the SENTENCE, part of a binary analysis that divides the sentence into subject and predicate. In the sentence Pat has joined our club, Pat is the subject and has joined our club is the predicate. In both grammar and logic, the predicate serves to make an assertion or denial about the subject of the sentence. In some analyses, the predicate does not include optional constituents, so that today is not part of the predicate in Pat has joined our club today.

predicate A function from some domain to a truth value. If the domain comprises n variables where n = 0,1,2,…

the function is called an n-place predicate. In the special case where n = 0, the predicate is a statement. Predicates are the fundamental building blocks of the predicate calculus.