How to Use hypothetically in a Sentence

hypothetically

adverb
  • For some of us, five years is a long time to hold on to the same car—even hypothetically.
    Tony Quiroga, Car and Driver, 9 Apr. 2021
  • Even a bunch of bugs squashed onto the plane could mess things up, hypothetically.
    Rob Verger, Popular Science, 28 Sep. 2020
  • What would happen, hypothetically, if a black hole appeared out of nowhere next to Earth?
    Kevin Pimbblet, Discover Magazine, 7 Nov. 2022
  • And Johnson has not yet passed the CR with Democratic votes, and hypothetically could change course.
    The Editors, National Review, 14 Nov. 2023
  • The Jedi task had a rat hypothetically move an object to a location in its mind.
    Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 2 Nov. 2023
  • The problem is that hypothetically, even if inflation were to come down to 7% or 6% year-over-year, the Fed's inflation target is still around 2%, Cronk notes.
    Anne Sraders, Fortune, 22 July 2022
  • If my partner and I were hypothetically members of the world’s ultra-wealthy one per cent, our newborn would be immune to the apocalypse, right?
    The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2021
  • Steps can be hard to define—a leisurely stroll or a run would hypothetically both count, Brandt said—but walking to increase step count can be a useful tool to improve health.
    Julia Landwehr, Health, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Even if, hypothetically, a LIV player wanted to enter a hometown event, there is no memo or directive from the Tour on how to handle that.
    Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Dec. 2023
  • And while that does give the team more time to hypothetically correct, history has shown that's unlikely to happen.
    Megan Ryan, Star Tribune, 10 May 2021
  • Stephens and the Democrats could in turn, hypothetically, convince one additional Republican to join them to pass a map if talks break down.
    cleveland, 12 Sep. 2023
  • But hypothetically, Schoen still then could trade into the back of the first round or use his early second-round pick on a quarterback who could sit and develop for a year behind Jones.
    Pat Leonard, New York Daily News, 30 Jan. 2024
  • So as a team above the first apron, the Heat could not hypothetically trade Herro and his $29 million salary for a player earning $31 million — something that would have been permitted under the old rules.
    Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 9 May 2024
  • Considering the strength of Amelia and Link’s partnership for much of this season, fans should hypothetically be enraged by this split.
    Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 7 June 2021
  • The next step is to actually crunch the numbers, and then to grapple with the moral implications of a hypothetically conscious universe.
    Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 5 Apr. 2022
  • Wembanyama would hypothetically slot next to Smith, giving the team the NBA's most enviable defensive pairing in the front court.
    Rahat Huq, Chron, 12 Sep. 2022
  • In this way, Dancing for the Devil could hypothetically never end.
    Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 12 June 2024
  • The researchers think the combination of both could mean not just a few microbial life forms but, at least hypothetically, a planet alive with organisms.
    Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 9 Jan. 2024
  • And the trash from their buildings, when taken out, should, hypothetically, be containerized.
    Curbed, 31 Aug. 2022
  • Left to its own devices, the virus could hypothetically bridle itself.
    Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 28 June 2021
  • Say hypothetically, there is a working mother who can focus on one class in five weeks — get that knocked out, focus on another class and another class.
    Debbie Truong, Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2023
  • Matchups like this are rare because hypothetically a program like MSJ has everything lose and nothing to gain beating some public school.
    Timothy Dashiell, Baltimore Sun, 2 Jan. 2024
  • There are hypothetically 200 state budgets to come before that point.
    Alan J. Borsuk, Journal Sentinel, 17 July 2023
  • But hypothetically, if everyone would’ve ended up in Columbus, this class gives the program a more ideal class in terms of overall numbers with 25 commits.
    Stephen Means, cleveland, 22 Dec. 2022
  • Another class of object that the dusty blobs could hypothetically be—but are not—is a compact planetary nebula or CPN.
    Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 4 July 2024
  • Thus hypothetically, New York State could again freeze her assets and notify any victims.
    Town & Country, 30 June 2023
  • Ugh, but at least this code is comprehensible to its designers—who could, hypothetically, adapt or dispense with it.
    Maya Singer, Vogue, 12 July 2023
  • Melted, that would be enough to hypothetically drape almost 5 inches of water across the entire state of California.
    Elvia Limón, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2023
  • This could hypothetically give him a chance to capitalize on the momentum of the presidential election to elect a parliament aligned with his agenda.
    Garret Martin, The Conversation, 8 Apr. 2022
  • Franke was speaking hypothetically, putting herself in the position of a person who is harboring a secret.
    Sean Neumann, Peoplemag, 1 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hypothetically.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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