supposed

supposed, supposititious, suppositious, reputed, putative, purported, conjectural, hypothetical can mean accepted or advanced as true, real, or in accordance with the facts on the basis of less than conclusive evidence. All imply a measure of doubt of what is asserted and may serve as a disclaimer of responsibility for the assertion.

Supposed is likely to imply rather general or common acceptance of what is asserted, though suggesting the presence of uncertainty or conflicting evidence or the likelihood of error

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the identity thus asserted with its supposed though sometimes debated poetic essence— Kolodin

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there has not been a reputable student of grammar for a long time who believed the grammar books which are in common use. But we, the people, are loyal to our supposed grammar— Laird

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have we not in the present censorship an ineffectual check on certain supposed evils which perhaps are not very real evils?— Walkley

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Supposititious occasionally comes close to supposed

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we have no reason to conclude that my idea of the absent thing has only such meaning as can be expressed in anticipatory terms —whether the anticipation be mine or that of a supposititious observer— Victor Lowe

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but usually it carries distinct and positive suggestions of fraudulence or spuriousness

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ready to lend his last cent to a man in distress or supposititious distress— Herzberg

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dispatched a lawyer ... to enlarge upon the theme of his father's supposititious affluence— Kobler

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Suppositious is used chiefly to imply that a belief or assertion is based on theory or on a postulate or hypothesis, and lacks factual support

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this was no suppositious contract between ruler and ruled in prehistoric times— Partington

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it [magic] comes down to a suppositious, misguided philosophy, a pseudo science— Howells

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Reputed, putative, and purported imply a basis in tradition or in popular belief. Reputed in itself is usually a thoroughly neutral word

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Ferdinand Latizar, reputed to have been a Mexican— Amer. Guide Series: La.

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Ross's goose, which was reputed to be near extinction— Times Lit. Sup.

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but can be strongly colored by context

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naturally, no lady would willingly admit that she had been ignored; so that the reputed prowess of Danny may be somewhat overstated— Steinbeck

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Putative describes something that is commonly or generally accepted but about which the describer reserves certain doubts

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that much of the time so saved was frittered away ... is a fact which diminished the putative efficiency of the new regime— Mumford

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the U. S. Fascists met ... its slapstick Waterloo, when a small detachment of Philadelphia cops stormed headquarters and captured the entire putative army, all of them generals— C. W. Ferguson

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In its common legal use it applies to a thing or person that may be subject to proof that it is not what it is generally accepted to be; thus, a putative marriage is one duly formalized but to a greater or less degree invalid because of some impediment (as consanguinity)

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proceedings to establish paternity and provide for the support of a child born out of wedlock may be instituted . . . within one year after the putative father has ceased making contributions for the support of such child— U. S. Code

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Purported may differ little from reputed and putative

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payments of allowances based on a purported marriage and made prior to judicial annulment or termination of such marriage— U. S. Code

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the purported head of the family is an ancient and garrulous lush; his helpmate is a domineering crone— McCarten

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but especially in its common journalistic use the word tends to stress the writer's disclaimer of responsibility for the matter asserted (compare alleged under ADDUCE) and may approach rumored in meaning

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the weekly reproduced a purported letter from De Gasperi, apparently addressed to a British officer in 1944— Time

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a list containing the names of 380 purported Communists in the United States— Current Biog.

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Conjectural implies inference from incomplete or defective evidence, and what is so described is offered as a possibility or likelihood but not as a fact

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the conjectural etymology of a word

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conjectural emendations in a faulty text

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conjectural causes of a depression

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Hypothetical describes someone or something (as a principle, a situation, or a question) that is invented or put forward as possibly true or as likely to be true in the main if not in detail, or as the tentative basis for continuing an argument or investigation

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a hypothetical explanation of nebulae

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this land claimed by the Spaniards—a hypothetical claim, all the interiors being still in the hands of the Indians— Amer. Guide Series: Texas

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my French visitor—who was a real, fiesh-and-blood visitor, and not, like most of his kind, a hypothetical foreigner invented to point a moral— Grandgent

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this study is hypothetical—i.e., tentative propositions derived from the existing body of social theory and empirical knowledge, but not yet refined into tested theoretical generalizations—/!. K. Davis

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Analogous words: assumed, presumed, presupposed, postulated (see PRESUPPOSE): tentative, *provisional: *doubtful, dubious, questionable: *theoretical, speculative, academic: alleged (see under ADDUCE)

Antonyms: certain