hypothetical

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ὑποθετικός (hupothetikós).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): [ˌhaɪpəˈθɛɾɪkəɫ]

  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

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• Audio (Southern England):

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Adjective

hypothetical (comparative more hypothetical, superlative most hypothetical)

1. Based upon a hypothesis; conjectural.
   • 1882, Henry John Roby, chapter XVIII, in A Latin grammar for schools‎^[1], London: MacMillan and Co., Book IV : Syntax or use of Inflexional Forms, page 258:

     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.

   • 2006, ACLU v. NSA (District Court opinion):

     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"; ...

2. (philosophy) Conditional; contingent upon some hypothesis/antecedent.

Antonyms

• actual
• (antonym(s) of “philosophy”): categorical

Derived terms

• antihypothetical
• hypothetical baptism
• hypothetical imperative
• hypotheticality
• hypothetically
• hypothetical taxonomic unit
• nonhypothetical
• unhypothetical

Translations

based upon a hypothesis

• Arabic: اِفْتِرَاضِيّ (iftirāḍiyy)
• Belarusian: гіпатэты́чны (hipatetýčny)
• Bulgarian: хипотети́чен (bg) (hipotetíčen)
• Catalan: hipotètic (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 假設的 / 假设的 (zh) (jiǎshè de), 假定的 (zh) (jiǎdìng de)

• Czech: hypotetický (cs)
• Danish: hypotetisk
• Finnish: hypoteettinen (fi)
• French: hypothétique (fr)
• Galician: hipotético (gl) m
• Georgian: ჰიპოთეტიური (hiṗoteṭiuri)
• German: hypothetisch (de)
• Greek: υποθετικός (el) (ypothetikós)
• Hindi: काल्पनिक (hi) (kālpanik)
• Icelandic: reistur á tilgátu m, reist á tilgátu f or n; skilyrtur m, skilyrt f or n
• Italian: ipotetico (it)
• Japanese: 仮定の (ja) (かていの, katei no)
• Kazakh: гипотезалық (gipotezalyq), болжаулық (boljaulyq)
• Korean: 가설적 (gaseoljeok)
• Malay: andaian (ms)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hypotetisk, tenkt (no)

  Nynorsk: hypotetisk, tenkt

• Persian: فرضی (fa) (farzi)
• Polish: hipotetyczny (pl)
• Portuguese: hipotético (pt)
• Romanian: ipotetic (ro) m or n
• Russian: гипотети́ческий (ru) (gipotɛtíčeskij)
• Slovak: hypotetický
• Spanish: hipotético (es)
• Swedish: hypotetisk (sv)
• Tagalog: palagayin
• Turkish: kuramsal (tr), nazari (tr), varsayımlı (tr), varsayımsal (tr), farazi (tr)
• Ukrainian: гіпотети́чний (hipotetýčnyj)

Noun

hypothetical (plural hypotheticals)

1. A possible or hypothetical situation or proposition.

   Coordinate term: counterfactual

   These hypotheticals serve no purpose until we have more information.

   • 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^[2]:

     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.”

   • 2024 March 18, Andrew Marantz, “О.К., Doomer”, in The New Yorker, page 45:

     Philosophers of doom tend to get hung up on elaborate sci-fi-inflected hypotheticals.

Related terms

• hypothesis
• hypothesize