Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To assume to be true or real for the sake of argument or explanation.
- intransitive verb To believe, especially on uncertain or tentative grounds.
- intransitive verb To consider to be probable or likely.
- intransitive verb To imply as an antecedent condition; presuppose.
- intransitive verb To consider as a suggestion.
- intransitive verb To imagine; conjecture.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Supposition; presumption; conjecture; opinion.
- To infer hypothetically; conceive a state of things, and dwell upon the idea (at least for a moment) with an inclination to believe it true, due to the agreement of its consequences with observed fact, but not free from doubt.
- To make a hypothesis; formulate a proposition without reference to its being true or false, with a view of tracing out its consequences.
- To assume as true without reflection; presume; opine; believe.
- To imply; involve as a further proposition or consequence; proceed from, as from a hypothesis.
- To put, as one thing by fraud in the place of another.
- To make or form a supposition; think; imagine.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete Supposition.
- transitive verb To represent to one's self, or state to another, not as true or real, but as if so, and with a view to some consequence or application which the reality would involve or admit of; to imagine or admit to exist, for the sake of argument or illustration; to assume to be true; as, let us
suppose the earth to be the center of the system, what would be the result? - transitive verb To imagine; to believe; to receive as true.
- transitive verb To require to exist or to be true; to imply by the laws of thought or of nature.
- transitive verb obsolete To put by fraud in the place of another.
- intransitive verb To make supposition; to think; to be of opinion.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
take for granted ; toconclude , with less than absolute supporting data; tobelieve . - verb transitive To
theorize orhypothesize .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb require as a necessary antecedent or precondition
- verb express a supposition
- verb to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds
- verb take for granted or as a given; suppose beforehand
- verb expect, believe, or suppose
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But suppose, Maggie, suppose it was a man who was not conceited, who felt he had nothing to be conceited about; who had been marked from childhood for a peculiar kind of suffering, and to whom you were the day-star of his life; who loved you, worshipped you, so entirely that he felt it happiness enough for him if you would let him see you at rare moments15
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They do not allege that they remember that (and yet as they themselves are, as they say, composed body and soul of this eternal fire mist, they ought to remember), but only that there are certain comets which occasionally come within fifty or sixty millions of miles of this earth, which they suppose may be composed of the fire mist which they _suppose_ this world is made of.
Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity Robert Patterson 1857
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"Faith," he said, "suppose (it is a very presumptuous supposition, but one may _suppose_ anything) suppose when my hands are free to take care of my Mignonette, that I should have the offer of two or three different gardens wherein to place her.
Say and Seal, Volume II Susan Warner 1852
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'We've been to the Rue du Cavalier Barnard again to-day,' he says, 'which I suppose is French for Barnard's-inn.
The Lovels of Arden 1875
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K: L'envers et l'endroit (which I suppose translates as
Vulpes Libris 2009
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Unless, of course, you believe that government-owned capital assets aren't productive, which I suppose is your right.
Social Security Privatization Debated, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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This I suppose is fine if you are a follower, but contrast Polytheism to our government and you have a better match.
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The point here, I suppose, is that check-cashing fees may be an exploitative scam run by sleazeballs, but that they may turn out to be a more prudent option for the working poor than the even-more exploitative scam run by the more mainstream, but sleazier sleazeballs of the banking industry.
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That, I suppose, is kind of obvious considering both movies are about brilliant surgeons with bizarre fetishes.
Movie Review: The Human Centipede (First Sequence) » Scene-Stealers 2010
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Which I suppose is like saying of South Carolina Gov.
A couple of thoughts about Obama's "Hey, You're Gay, Hurray!" Day 2009
mollusque commented on the word suppose
No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is suppose that they are like himself.
--John Steinbeck, 1961, The Winter of Our Discontent
November 22, 2007
kewpid commented on the word suppose
This is a nice sentence qualifier so you can backtrack later :)
November 22, 2007