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I am looking for a noun to describe something that is self-evident. I don't think I can say 'this is a self-evidency', but searching online and on this forum, I haven't found a proper alternative yet.

Marieke
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    Perhaps it would help to provide a context, an example of how you want to use this noun. – oKtosiTe Feb 03 '12 at 10:20
  • The context in which I want to use it is this: 'The fact that all literature deals with it in such and such a way is a [self-evidency] – Marieke Feb 03 '12 at 10:39
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    Out of curiosity, why use the noun there? Dropping the indefinite article and just using self-evident seems perfectly natural. – Dusty Feb 03 '12 at 13:04

7 Answers7

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Given, as in "The fact that .... is a given".

Daniel
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I think given is the closest to what you described, but presupposition and tautology come to mind.

user1011625
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Obvious can itself be a noun. You can speak of ‘stating the obvious’, for example. But it’s not a countable noun, so you can’t precede it with the indefinite article.

Barrie England
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According to Wiktionary, self-evidency is such a noun.

oKtosiTe
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    Alas, Wiktionary says (and my ear agrees) that "self-evidency" is always uncountable and describes a quality, not an item. That is, you can speak of "the self-evidency of" something, but speaking of something as "a self-evidency" would be an unusual usage at best. – Ilmari Karonen Feb 03 '12 at 12:45
  • I do not doubt that it is a valid construction, but it seems awkward to my American ears. – MetaEd Feb 03 '12 at 15:24
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In the example sentence you gave, if I absolutely had to use a noun, I'd probably go for a noun phrase like "self-evident fact", and preferably change the beginning to avoid the repetition of "fact":

"That all literature deals with it in such and such a way is a self-evident fact."

But really, why can't you just say:

"The fact that all literature deals with it in such and such a way is self-evident."

(I was originally going to suggest "triviality", but it doesn't really fit the context you specified. It would work in something like "We need not concern ourselves with such trivialities.")

Ilmari Karonen
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The word truism expresses the idea you are looking for, and can be used with an indefinite article.

The fact that all literature deals with it in such and such a way is a truism.

MetaEd
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  • I don't think this is quite the same. I thought of "tautology", too, and rejected it for the same reason. In each case, the meaning is "this is self-evident", whereas in the example, the desired meaning is "the large body of easily-available evidence makes this obvious". – Ed Staub Feb 03 '12 at 15:45
  • Should the question be edited, then? A truism (dictionary.reference.com/browse/truism) is "a self-evident, obvious truth." That is, more than any other proposed word, an exact answer to the question, which asks for a synonym to "self-evidency" or a word that means "something that is self-evident." – corvec Feb 03 '12 at 17:37
  • See also http://www.wcdebate.com/1parli/29truism.htm which explains in detail the difference between a truism and a tautology. – corvec Feb 03 '12 at 17:42
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It would be better to know the context but still you can check axiomatic and axiom

Edit 1: Possible to say

The fact that all literature deals with it in such and such a way is the proof itself.

You could also use "obvious proof", "valid proof" e.t.c

Mustafa
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