Phrase guide

proper class

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

A class which is not a set.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: mathematics, sciences, set-theory

Examples

  • 2004, Hartry Field, The Consistency of the Naive Theory of Properties, Godehard Link, One Hundred Years of Russell's Paradox: Mathematics, Logic, Philosophy, Walter de Gruyter, page 308, It is true that the absence of proper classes in ZF is sometimes awkward. It is also true that adding proper classes in the usual ways (either predicative classes as in Gödel—Bernays, or impredicative ones as in Morse-Kelley is conceptually unsettling: in each case (and especially in the more convenient Morse-Kelley case) they "look too much like just another level of sets", and the fact that there is no entity that captures the extension of predicates true of proper classes suggests the introduction of still further entities ("super-classes" that can have proper classes as members), and so on ad infinitum.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

1 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Italian: classe propria — class which is not a set