hypothetically

English

Etymology

From hypothetical +‎ -ly.

Adverb

hypothetically (comparative more hypothetically, superlative most hypothetically)

1. In a hypothetical way; as a hypothesis.

   He offered the proposition hypothetically.

   • 2018 June 3, Veronica Stracqualursi and Dana Bash, “Giuliani to HuffPost: Trump could have ‘shot James Comey’ and not be prosecuted”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed Sunday that the President hypothetically could have shot the former FBI director to end the Russia investigation and not face prosecution for it while in office.

2. Used to introduce a proposition to discussion without commitment to its truth

   Hypothetically, what would you say if I proposed marriage to you?

   • 2024 February 5, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “Meet Me in the Eternal City”, in The Atlantic‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Hypothetically, Srinivasan suggests network states for people who eat specific diets (kosher, keto), for people who don’t like FDA regulation, for people who don’t like cancel culture, for people who want to live like Benedictine monks, for people who might want to limit internet use by putting public buildings in Faraday cages.

Translations

in a hypothetical way

• Catalan: hipotèticament (ca)
• Czech: hypoteticky
• Dutch: hypothetisch (nl)
• French: hypothétiquement (fr)
• Italian: ipoteticamente (it)
• Polish: hipotetycznie (pl)
• Portuguese: hipoteticamente (pt)
• Russian: гипотети́чески (ru) (gipotetíčeski)
• Spanish: hipotéticamente