Hypothetical Meaning
/ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjBased upon a hypothesis; conjectural.
adjConditional; contingent upon some hypothesis/antecedent.
Sentence Examples
This is all hypothetical.
It was just a hypothetical question.
A hypothetical explanation could be that they just forgot it.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The teacher gave a ____ example to explain the difficult physics concept.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The professor used a ____ scenario to help the students understand the complex ethical dilemma.
Word Origin & History
From Ancient Greek ὑποθετικός (hupothetikós).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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 hypothetical"; ..."
— 2006, ACLU v. NSA (District Court opinion):
"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:
"Philosophers of doom tend to get hung up on elaborate sci-fi-inflected hypotheticals."
— 2024 March 18, Andrew Marantz, “О.К., Doomer”, in The New Yorker, page 45:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The teacher gave a ____ example to explain the difficult physics concept.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The professor used a ____ scenario to help the students understand the complex ethical dilemma.