Other forms: proposals
A proposal is a plan put forward for others to consider. A detailed proposal, reject the proposal, submit a proposal.
In business and academia it is a formal document: a funding proposal, a research proposal, a proposal to the board. The other sense is an offer of marriage — she accepted his proposal — and it is the only sense many people meet first. Note propose, which does both jobs; proposition, which in business is what you are offering and in logic is a statement; and counter-proposal.
1nounproposalA plan put forward for others to consider.
“The council rejected the proposal to build a car park on the old playground.”
2nounmarriageAn offer of marriage.
“The proposal came after about eleven years.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
proposal is a plan or offer.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Latin
propono
Middle French
proposer
Anglo-Norman
proposer
Middle English
proposen
English
propose
English, today
proposal
From propose + -al. propose comes from Middle English proposen, from Anglo-Norman proposer, propos, Middle French proposer, propos, from Latin propono, with conjugation altered based on poser. a doublet of propound.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA