CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does circumstantial evidence mean? 

• CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE (noun)
  The noun CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE has 1 sense:

1. evidence providing only a basis for inference about the fact in dispute

  Familiarity information: CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Evidence providing only a basis for inference about the fact in dispute

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

circumstantial evidence; indirect evidence

Hypernyms ("circumstantial evidence" is a kind of...):

evidence ((law) all the means by which any alleged matter of fact whose truth is investigated at judicial trial is established or disproved)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Antonym:

direct evidence (evidence (usually the testimony of a witness) directly related to the fact in dispute)

 Context examples 

I had no fear, therefore, that any circumstantial evidence could be brought forward strong enough to convict her.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“If ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so here.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The rings and gaps in these discs provide intriguing circumstantial evidence for the presence of protoplanets.

(ALMA Discovers Trio of Infant Planets around Newborn Star, ESO)

Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau’s example.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That evidence, he observed, was hardly required in so glaring a case, but I am glad of it, and, indeed, none of our judges like to condemn a criminal upon circumstantial evidence, be it ever so decisive.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)