might-be

English

Alternative forms

• might be

Etymology

From might +‎ be. Compare would-be.

Adjective

might-be (not comparable)

1. That might be or occur; possible; potential; hypothetical.
   • 1998, John Cramer, Einstein's Bridge:

     "There is a might-be particle called a 'magnetic monopole' that was suggested by certain theories of Dirac and others but had never been observed.

Noun

might-be (plural might-bes)

1. That which might be or happen; a possibility.
   • 1973, Institute of Biology, Journal of biological education:

     In the Biology Teachers'" Handbook (Wiley, 1963), Schwab writes: A hypothesis is a "might be", a possibility which we intend to test . . . one of the values of a hypothesis consists in the fact that it can be made to point like an arrow [...]

   • 1983, Tasso Borbé, Semiotics unfolding:

     Firstness comprises anything capable of being described without contradiction (2.667), it is a might-be, in other words, pure possibility, which Peirce calls "quality": "mere quality, or suchness, is not in itself an occurrence, as seeing a red object is; it is a mere may-be.

   • 1991, Floyd Merrell, Signs becoming signs: our perfusive, pervasive universe:

     It is a might be, a mere possibility from the tossing ocean of pure chance.

   • 2010, Tony Fry, Design as Politics:

     Context two is a 'might be' and is futural and nameable as 'the desired'.