How to Use hypothetical in a Sentence

hypothetical

adjective
Definition of hypotheticalnext
Synonyms for hypotheticalnext
  • She described a hypothetical case to clarify her point.
  • Then come the hypothetical roofs, the might-have-been roofs, the roofs that are no more.
    — By Michael Browning, miamiherald, 25 Aug. 2015
  • The judge based the amount of the award on a hypothetical license fee that the party might have paid to use the song.
    — NBC News, 25 Oct. 2017
  • Of course, the hypothetical does not come out of nowhere.
    — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, 10 Aug. 2017
  • Like the hypothetical beer case, this case against Walmart mocks the rule of law.
    — Michael I. Krauss, WSJ, 27 Dec. 2020
  • But in that hypothetical world, the math wasn’t adding up.
    — Joanne Solomon, Longreads, 1 July 2017
  • That’s the big hypothetical, though: whether this was a move the Indians had to make.
    — Jon Tayler, SI.com, 31 July 2019
  • But this grand alignment of the aggrieved has been moving from the realm of the hypothetical...
    — Graham T. Allison and, WSJ, 29 Jan. 2019
  • At some hypothetical point, the drama around the show will be drowned out by the show itself.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 1 Feb. 2017
  • The romance is all still hypothetical; the sheer joy is not.
    — The New York Times, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2022
  • Like so much else in the world of AI, many of the concerns about these replicas are still hypothetical.
    — Kate Lindsay, The Atlantic, 31 July 2024
  • Of course, the string of reasons behind the mass deaths is all still hypothetical.
    — Popular Science, 18 Sep. 2020
  • To be sure, this is all hypothetical for the time being.
    — Robert Verbruggen, National Review, 18 Aug. 2020
  • What isn’t clear is how much this risk is hypothetical rather than proven, or what the United States should do about it.
    — Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2023
  • The risk is hypothetical, and Merck says it has not been borne out in its studies.
    — Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 24 Dec. 2021
  • That is, and will be, one of the great hypothetical questions of this election cycle.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Maybe that’s not the best hypothetical question to pose.
    — Evan Grant, Dallas News, 1 Aug. 2023
  • The team says that their hypothetical moon, dubbed Chrysalis, could be the cause, per New Scientist.
    — Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Sep. 2022
  • According to the Times poll, Biden and Trump are tied in a hypothetical rematch at forty-three per cent.
    — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2023
  • The big question: Where to put these hypothetical new schools?
    — Juliette Mavroleon, miamiherald, 17 June 2018
  • So the value of the options is more hypothetical than real at this point.
    — Chris Isidore, CNN, 10 July 2020
  • Trump comes out on top of a hypothetical one-on-one matchup with DeSantis 51% to 38% too.
    — Ben Kamisar, NBC News, 21 Apr. 2023
  • The worry, though hypothetical, is one that should not be dismissed out of hand.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2018
  • Justice garnered the support of 52% of those surveyed in the poll, while Manchin had support from 42% in the hypothetical matchup between the two.
    — Julie Tsirkin, NBC News, 15 Feb. 2023
  • For his firm, a hypothetical outright ban on TikTok would result in the loss of about a third of his firm’s revenue.
    — Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 28 Mar. 2023
  • One’s mind can run wild with what a hypothetical Martha Stewart setlist would look like.
    — Christian Allaire, Vogue, 18 Apr. 2019
  • Check out all of the hypothetical scenarios in the lyrics below.
    — Heran Mamo, Billboard, 5 Sep. 2019
  • This isn't just a hypothetical—Amazon Prime Day has that very deal.
    — K. Thor Jensen, PCMAG, 11 July 2023
  • If it can be said that money may be left on the table in the event of a sweep, that money is also wholly hypothetical.
    — Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 29 Oct. 2024
  • Cuban’s hypothetical side hustle is more high-tech than his actual first job, selling garage bags door-to-door to his neighbors outside of Pittsburgh at age 12 to save up for a new pair of basketball shoes.
    — Megan Sauer, CNBC, 22 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hypothetical.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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