hypothetical
/ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl//ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/
hypothetical adjective: based upon a hypothesis; conjectural.
Adjective
hypothetical (comparative more hypothetical, superlative most hypothetical)
- Based upon a hypothesis; conjectural.
- Such a subjunctive as appears in the principal clause (i.e. the apodosis) of a conditional sentence may be called a hypothetical subjunctive. An hypothetical subjunctive expresses an action¹ which, while its non-occurrence is implied, is yet supposed to occur, if some other action occur.1882, Henry John Roby, chapter XVIII, in A Latin grammar for schools, London: MacMillan and Co., Book IV : Syntax or use of Inflexional Forms, page 258
- To establish standing under Article III, a plaintiff must satisfy the following three requirements: (1) "the plaintiff must have suffered an injury in fact - an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or...2006, ACLU v. NSA (District Court opinion)
- Conditional; contingent upon some hypothesis/antecedent.
Noun
hypothetical (plural hypotheticals)
- A possible or hypothetical situation or proposition.
- These hypotheticals serve no purpose until we have more information.
- He told ABC News: “Just to give you a hypothetical, we would respond by leading a Nato – a collective – effort that would take out every Russian conventional force that we can see and identify on the battlefield in Ukraine and also in Crimea and every ship in the Black sea.”2022 October 2, Edward Helmore, quoting David Petraeus, “Petraeus: US would destroy Russia’s troops if Putin uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine”, in The Guardian
hypothetical meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
hypothetical in Hindi
- based upon a hypothesis
- काल्पनिक kālpanik
hypothetical in Tamil
- கருத்தளவிலான, கருதுகின்ற, கருதுகோள் வாயிலாக, மூலம்
hypothetical in Urdu
- فرضی, مفروضی, قیاسی
hypothetical in Bengali
- প্রকল্পিত
More languagesFewer languages
- hypothetical in Malayalam
- ഊഹാത്മകം, താത്ത്വിക, ഊഹിക്കാവുന്നതായ, സങ്കല്പിക്കാവുന്നതായ
- hypothetical in Kannada
- ಗಿರುಗೆಯ, ಗೆತ್ತ
- hypothetical in Odia
- ଅନୁମାନାତ୍ମକ
- hypothetical in Tagalog
- palagayin
- hypothetical in Arabic
- اِفْتِرَاضِيّ iftirāḍiyy
- hypothetical in Malay
- andaian
- hypothetical in Persian
- فرضی farzi
Examples of hypothetical in a sentence
- You're asking me a ridiculous hypothetical question that no one can reasonably answer. You need to stop with your gotchas.
- The hypothetical syllogism inference rule states the transitivity of implication.
- String theory denies the existence of a hypothetical eleventh dimension.
Antonyms of hypothetical
Forms of hypothetical
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more hypothetical |
| superlative | most hypothetical |
| Noun | |
| plural | hypotheticals |
Origin of hypothetical
From Ancient Greek ὑποθετικός (hupothetikós).
Words formed from hypothetical
Phrases with hypothetical
Questions about hypothetical
- What does hypothetical mean?
- Hypothetical means based upon a hypothesis; conjectural.
- What is hypothetical in Hindi?
- Hypothetical in Hindi is काल्पनिक (kālpanik). See Hypothetical meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is hypothetical?
- Hypothetical can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce hypothetical?
- Hypothetical is pronounced /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/ (UK).
Words near hypothetical in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hypothetical (page history and authors); hypothetical (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hypothetical (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hypothetical (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hypothetical (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); hypothetical (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hypothetical (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “hypothetical.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hypothetical. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.