hypothetical

hypothetical
    adj 1: based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence;
           "theories about the extinction of dinosaurs are still
           highly conjectural"; "the supposed reason for his
           absence"; "suppositious reconstructions of dead
           languages"; "hypothetical situation" [syn: {conjectural},
           {divinatory}, {hypothetical}, {hypothetic}, {supposed},
           {suppositional}, {suppositious}, {supposititious}]
    n 1: a hypothetical possibility, circumstance, statement,
         proposal, situation, etc.; "consider the following, just as
         a hypothetical"
    

Hypothetic \Hy`po*thet"ic\, Hypothetical \Hy`po*thet"ic*al\, a.
   [L. hypotheticus, Gr. ?: cf. F. hypoth['e]tique.]
   Characterized by, or of the nature of, an hypothesis;
   conditional; assumed without proof, for the purpose of
   reasoning and deducing proof, or of accounting for some fact
   or phenomenon.
   [1913 Webster]

         Causes hypothetical at least, if not real, for the
         various phenomena of the existence of which our
         experience informs us.                   --Sir W.
                                                  Hamilton.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Hypothetical baptism} (Ch. of Eng.), baptism administered to
      persons in respect to whom it is doubtful whether they
      have or have not been baptized before. --Hook. --
      {Hy`po*thet"ic*al*ly}, adv. --South.
      [1913 Webster]
    

48 Moby Thesaurus words for "hypothetical":
      a fortiori, a posteriori, a priori, abstract, academic, analytic,
      armchair, assumed, categorical, conditional, conjectural,
      conjectured, deductive, dialectic, discursive, doubtful,
      enthymematic, epagogic, guessed, hypothesized, hypothetic, ideal,
      imagined, impractical, inductive, inferential, maieutic, moot,
      notional, postulatory, presumed, problematic, putative, reputed,
      soritical, speculative, supposed, suppositional, supposititious,
      suppositive, suppository, surmised, suspected, syllogistic,
      synthetic, theoretical, transcendent, transcendental