atomic formula

In formal logic, an atomic formula is a basic proposition that cannot be broken down further. These formulas typically involve a predicate, which describes a property or relation, and one or more arguments, which are individuals or objects. For example, "Socrates is wise" is an atomic formula where "is wise" is the predicate and "Socrates" is the argument.1

Atomic formulas can be combined using logical connectives (like "and," "or," "not") to form more complex statements, known as molecular propositions. The predicate calculus, which deals with these formulas, also utilizes quantifiers (universal and existential) to express statements about all or some individuals within a given domain. Higher-order predicate calculi extend this by allowing quantification over predicate variables as well.21