Definition of "apodosis" in English

noun

1. (logic, grammar) The consequential clause in a conditional sentence.

   • In "I will be coming if this weather holds up", "I will be coming" is the apodosis and "this weather holds up" is the protasis.
   • 1943 Dornford Yates An Eye for a Tooth "If, after that, there is anything more to be done. . ." "Yes?" "You’d ----well better do it," said Forecast. The meaning with which he invested this blunt apodosis was unmistakable. Even I, an eavesdropper, found it most sinister: and I was not surprised when, after a little silence, the other turned on his heel and led the way to the road.
   • 1997 Angeliki Athanasiadou, René Dirven (eds) On Conditionals Again p. 309 by Hansjakob Seiler There is furthermore the claim that conditionals necessarily involve a causal relation from protasis to apodosis. This may hold for the "conjunctive" types signalling a natural consequence from protasis to apodosis, but becomes increasingly unlikely as we approach disjunctive structures of the type. "May I perish most miserably, if I do not love Xanthia." does not mean "May I perish most miserably, because I do not love Xanthia."