protasis
/ˈpɹɒtəsɪs/noun
protasis is a noun meaning “The first part of a play, in which the setting and characters are introduced” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-R-O-T-A-S-I-S, and it appears about once in every 60 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of protasis is protases.
What does protasis mean?
noun
- 1
The first part of a play, in which the setting and characters are introduced.
- 2
A clause that expresses a contingent element in a conditional sentence.
In "I will be coming if this weather holds up", "if this weather holds up" is the protasis, and "I will be coming" is the apodosis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce protasis?
- /ˈpɹɒtəsɪs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-protasis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of protasis
- protases plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is protasis?
Protasis appears about once in every 60 million words in written English, the 243,301st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Protasis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense clause that expresses a contingent element in a conditional sentence:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does protasis come from?
From Late Latin protasis, from Ancient Greek πρότασις (prótasis), from προτείνω (proteínō, “put forward, tender, propose”), from πρό (pró) + τείνω (teínō, “stretch”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).