MEANING
Imagined or assumed for the purpose of reasoning, without being established as an actual fact.
Use it for
introducing an imagined case to test a principle; distinguishing an assumed scenario from observed evidence; exploring consequences without asserting that an event occurredSeparates an imagined or assumed case from an actual observation without declaring the case impossible. Academic functions: Qualification / Uncertainty, Evidence.
Words that belong together
- a hypothetical scenario
- a hypothetical example
- a hypothetical mechanism
On the page
A hypothetical tax increase illustrates how the model treats changes in household spending.
The mechanism remains hypothetical because the study did not measure the proposed intermediate process.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- hypothetical
Usage notes
Usually non-gradable. Attributive or predicative: a hypothetical case; the scenario is hypothetical. No ordinary -er/-est forms. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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