HYPOTHETICAL

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hypothetical mean? 

• HYPOTHETICAL (noun)
  The noun HYPOTHETICAL has 1 sense:

1. a hypothetical possibility, circumstance, statement, proposal, situation, etc.

  Familiarity information: HYPOTHETICAL used as a noun is very rare.

• HYPOTHETICAL (adjective)
  The adjective HYPOTHETICAL has 1 sense:

1. based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence

  Familiarity information: HYPOTHETICAL used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HYPOTHETICAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A hypothetical possibility, circumstance, statement, proposal, situation, etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

consider the following, just as a hypothetical

Hypernyms ("hypothetical" is a kind of...):

hypothesis; possibility; theory (a tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena)

• HYPOTHETICAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence

Synonyms:

conjectural; divinatory; hypothetic; hypothetical; supposed; suppositional; suppositious; supposititious

Context example:

hypothetical situation

Similar:

theoretic; theoretical (concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations)

Derivation:

hypothesis (a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence)

 Context examples 

This allele, which encodes hypothetical protein FLJ21935, plays a role in signal transduction related to actin remodeling.

(EPS8L2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

This allele, which encodes hypothetical protein LOC145788, has no known function.

(FLJ27352 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

This ratio is equal to maximum blood flow in the vessel with stenosis divided by the maximum hypothetical blood flow without stenosis.

(Fractional Flow Reserve Ratio of Vessel, NCI Thesaurus)

Hypothetical protein LOC145788 (121 aa, ~14 kDa) is encoded by the human FLJ27352 gene.

(Hypothetical Protein LOC145788, NCI Thesaurus)

That is because more water vapor would be able to persist in the atmosphere of the hypothetical planet and act as a buffer to keep surface conditions comfortable.

(Earth-Sized 'Tatooine' Planets Could Be Habitable, NASA)

The body of the telegram was devoted to hypothetical topics in order to show him the freedom of range that was to be his.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The researchers note the planetary wobble could be caused by the gravitational pull of a hypothetical second planet in the system, rather than a moon.

(Astronomers Find First Evidence of Possible Moon Outside Our Solar System, NASA)

A hypothetical heat-proof compass at the surface of the Sun would point toward one pole during one eleven-year period but toward the other during the next.

(Sun's mood swings not so strange after all, Wikinews)

The brightness of a red dwarf at extreme ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths combined with the close orbit would mean that the hypothetical planet would get hit with about 5 to 10 times more UV radiation than the real Mars does.

(Mars Mission Sheds Light on Habitability of Distant Planets, NASA)

Next he touched upon the Indians, and upon the extraordinary colony of anthropoid apes, which might be looked upon as an advance upon the pithecanthropus of Java, and as coming therefore nearer than any known form to that hypothetical creation, the missing link.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)