The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hypothetic \Hy`po*thet"ic\, Hypothetical \Hy`po*thet"ic*al\, a. 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.
Causes hypothetical at least, if not real, for the
various phenomena of the existence of which our
experience informs us.
--Sir W.
Hamilton.
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.
Wiktionary
adv. 1 In a hypothetical way; as a hypothesis. 2 (non-gloss definition: Used to introduce a proposition to discussion without commitment to its truth)
WordNet
adv. by hypothesis
Usage examples of "hypothetically".
Ogger asked, hypothetically, whether Rom would ask a Ferengi to stop strip mining dilithium just because warp drives damage space and dilithium is a nonrenewable resource.
I also propose in this preface my own view of metaphysics, which has so many analogies with the Copernican hypothesis, as an hypothesis only, though, in the Critique itself, it is proved by means of our representations of space and time, and the elementary concepts of the understanding, not hypothetically, but apodictically.
But supplementary to this, it has hypothetically occurred to me, that as ordinary fish possess what is called a swimming bladder in them, capable, at will, of distension or contraction.
You may hypothetically ignore him, pretend to a hypothetical lack of sensation in your gluteus maximus sinister - or is he left-handed?