Standard Lemma guide

supposititious

adj · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • UK: /səˌpɒzɪˈtɪʃəs/
  • General-American: /səˌpɑzəˈtɪʃəs/

1

adj

Meaning 1

Spurious; substituted for the genuine, counterfeit; fake.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Imaginary; fictitious, pretended to exist.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

Examples

  • 1836, Edgar Allan Poe, Review of Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay, and other Poems and Fitz-Greene Halleck, Alnwick Castle, with other Poems in Southern Literary Messenger, Volume 2, No. 5, April 1836, pp. 327-328, ... we discover in all men a disposition to look with reverence upon superiority, whether real or supposititious.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Supposed or hypothetical.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective satellite

Meaning 4

based primarily on surmise rather than adequate evidence

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • theories about the extinction of dinosaurs are still highly conjectural
  • the supposed reason for his absence
  • suppositious reconstructions of dead languages
  • hypothetical situation

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: conjectural, divinatory, hypothetical, hypothetic, supposed, suppositional, suppositious

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin suppositus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -īcus Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -īcius Latin suppositīciusbor. English supposititious Borrowed from Latin suppositīcius.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: лъжлив (lǎžliv) — supposed or hypothetical
  • Bulgarian: мним (mnim) — supposed or hypothetical
  • Dutch: hypothetisch — supposed or hypothetical