Putative Meaning
/ˈpjuː.tə.tɪv/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjCommonly believed or deemed to be the case; generally assumed.
adjAccepted by supposition rather than as a result of proof.
Sentence Examples
He was the putative playboy of the librarian set.
The risks of such a project would clearly outweigh any putative benefit.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ father of the child has never been seen by anyone.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ father was asked to provide a DNA sample to confirm his biological relationship to the child.
Word Origin & History
First attested c. 1432, from Middle French putatif, from Latin putātīvus (“supposed, purported”), from putātus (“thought”), from putō (“to think, to consider, to reckon”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"If they are in fact sound, then, of course, desire-utilitarianism need not account for the putative wrongness of infanticide."
— 1991 May 24, Clement Dore, Moral Scepticism, Springer, →ISBN, page 85:
"This independence is still presupposed as a condition of agency; but this presupposition leaves in place the epistemic possibility that our putative freedom is illusory, that we are automata rather than agents."
— 1995, Henry E. Allison, “Spontaneity and Autonomy in Kant's Conception of the Self”, in Karl Ameriks and Dieter Sturma, editors, The Modern Subject: Conceptions of the Self in Classical German Philosophy, page 24:
"But Dejouany, like many others, was seduced by the charm and putative brilliance of this man of vision and handed over the reins to Messier in 1996."
— 2017 January 10, Jonathan Buchsbaum, Exception Taken: How France Has Defied Hollywood's New World Order, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 107:
"In answer to the objection, that if a thing is only putative, it is fictitious"
— 1831, The Quarterly Christian Spectator, page 504:
"[T]he lady . . . insisted upon going herself, requesting me to mind for a second the baby. . . . lo! the baby awoke and stared at me with a pair of big frightened eyes, which the little thing in another moment rolled in all directions, as if in search of its putative mother."
— 1879 November 9, Maurice Mauris, “A Materialistic Artist”, in New York Times, page 10:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ father of the child has never been seen by anyone.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ father was asked to provide a DNA sample to confirm his biological relationship to the child.