hypothetical

adjective

hy·po·thet·i·cal | \ˌhī-pə-ˈthe-ti-kəl

Definition of hypothetical

: involving or being based on a suggested idea or theory : being or involving a hypothesis : conjectural hypothetical arguments a hypothetical situation

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Examples of hypothetical in a Sentence

She described a hypothetical case to clarify her point. we talked about what we would do in various hypothetical emergencies

Recent Examples on the Web

Freedman gave the hypothetical example of a small electrical services business that occasionally works with indoor marijuana growers. — Sophie Quinton, Philly.com, "Make money from marijuana? Forget about a federally subsidized loan," 16 May 2018 Why mess it up by bringing in yet another five-star point guard early (which, in the Hagans hypothetical, would give Kentucky four – along with Quade Green and Immanuel Quickley – on the roster next season)? — Fletcher Page, The Courier-Journal, "What Tyrese Maxey's commitment means for Kentucky basketball," 9 May 2018 Shuman offered a few hypothetical examples to show how Cortana could be a helpful workplace assistant using LinkedIn data. — Lisa Eadicicco, Time, "Here's One Way Microsoft's Amazon Alexa Rival Could Win," 18 Jan. 2018 An internal poll taken in late January shows former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen narrowly edging out Blackburn in a hypothetical match-up. — James Hohmann, Washington Post, "The Daily 202: Trump budget highlights disconnect between populist rhetoric and plutocrat reality," 13 Feb. 2018 Though the company mentions high-frequency sounds as part of the ambient-audio collection process, these sounds aren't what will activate this hypothetical Facebook app's recording feature. — Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica, "Facebook patent would turn your mic on to analyze how you watch ads," 28 June 2018 In our hypothetical run, the JDAMs will cripple the air defenses and command and control centers. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "B-52 Bombers Could Quadruple Their Wing Bomb Loads," 25 June 2018 The other third of the subjects were given only a description of the experiment, and asked to give their hypothetical responses. — Katie Heaney, The Cut, "People Aren’t As Morally Superior As They Think They Are," 21 June 2018 The wall would probably delay a hypothetical crossing by a few minutes, depending on its design and the manner of the breach. — Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, "Trump’s Wall Would Devastate Big Bend National Park," 24 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hypothetical.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.