SUPPOSED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does supposed mean? 

• SUPPOSED (adjective)
  The adjective SUPPOSED has 4 senses:

1. required or under orders

2. mistakenly believed

3. doubtful or suspect

4. based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence

  Familiarity information: SUPPOSED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUPPOSED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Required or under orders

Context example:

he was supposed to go to the store

Similar:

obligated (caused by law or conscience to follow a certain course)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Mistakenly believed

Context example:

the supposed existence of ghosts

Similar:

improbable; unlikely (not likely to be true or to occur or to have occurred)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Doubtful or suspect

Synonyms:

alleged; so-called; supposed

Context example:

these so-called experts are no help

Similar:

questionable (subject to question)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence

Synonyms:

conjectural; divinatory; hypothetic; hypothetical; supposed; suppositional; suppositious; supposititious

Context example:

hypothetical situation

Similar:

theoretic; theoretical (concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations)

 Context examples 

You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

When the hour of departure drew near, the maternal anxiety of Mrs. Morland will be naturally supposed to be most severe.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Indeed! I should not have supposed that you could have found anything in Lyme to inspire such a feeling.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

You are not afraid of being supposed ashamed.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

But she said she supposed that they knew the road, and would follow her, and she could not stay there all day waiting for them.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

"Don't speak so loud, or you will be overheard—and I should be ruined. I'm supposed to be a Great Wizard."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Those who stood nearest over against me, seemed to be persons of distinction, as I supposed by their habit.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

However, according to a researcher at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) in Switzerland, these concepts may be no longer valid: the phenomena they are supposed to describe can be demonstrated without them.

(There May Be No Dark Matter, Dark Energy in Universe, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Hormone diseases also occur if your body does not respond to hormones the way it is supposed to.

(Endocrine Diseases, NIH)

To all this, as may be well supposed, I made no answer.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)