putative — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Commonly believed or deemed to be the case; generally assumed.

   Synonyms

   reputedsupposed

   Examples

   Just as Prince Sihanouk is fronting for the Khmer Rouge today . . . so also was he their putative leader from 1970 to 1975.

   If they are in fact sound, then, of course, desire-utilitarianism need not account for the putative wrongness of infanticide.

   More examples (2)

   This independence is still presupposed as a condition of agency; but this presupposition leaves in place the epistemic possibility that our putative freedom is illusory, that we are automata rather than agents.

   But Dejouany, like many others, was seduced by the charm and putative brilliance of this man of vision and handed over the reins to Messier in 1996.

2. Accepted by supposition rather than as a result of proof.

   Examples

   In answer to the objection, that if a thing is only putative, it is fictitious

   More examples (2)

   [T]he lady . . . insisted upon going herself, requesting me to mind for a second the baby. . . . lo! the baby awoke and stared at me with a pair of big frightened eyes, which the little thing in another moment rolled in all directions, as if in search of its putative mother.

   The government submits there is no inconsistency between the jury's putative conclusion that Lendmann did not intend to distribute the charged 3.59 grams of methamphetamine and its clear conclusions that Lendmann knowingly manufactured the same and knowingly attempted to make a kilogram more.

   You have the putative assumption, because everybody is interrogated, that everybody who has entered is heterosexual.

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   We mistakenly identify the reasoning that we employ in order to show that a putative judgement is grounded, with what makes for the difference between its being a judgement rather than guesswork.

   The capacity of monoclonal antibodies such as 2F4 to identify the egg-box structure is only putative as Liners et al. (1989) mention in the abstract: “The epitope recognised is probably part of the dimers of pectin chains associated according to the 'egg-box' model,” and there is no definitive evidence of a strong specificity to such structures in muro.

3. Alleged, purported, ostensible, professed.

   Examples

   A putative love tonic was made from the water in which myrtle leaves and flowers had been steeped.

   More examples (3)

   Karr's past does raise suspicions. When he was arrested in Bangkok, he was living in a dormitory-like guesthouse in a neighborhood frequented by sex tourists. . . . Of course, Karr's putative pedophilia would not make him guilty of murder.

   Nation-building strategies have two prongs: they aim as creating unity within, and difference without. […] It is not enough to tear down walls among the members of the putative nation: one must also erect imaginary boundaries around them that separate them from the outside world.

   I’ve been subject to several gropings and gross jibes of the type you’d expect behind a junior-high gym dance, and they’ve been delivered by grownups, putative pals, not one of whom I even dimly considered getting jiggy with.

4. Prospective, potential, proposed.

   Usage

   • proscribed
   • sometimes

   Examples

   More examples (8)

   Paralleling this extension of government control was the development of a formally constituted opposition […] In some cases a former Prime Minister was clearly acknowledged as leader and putative Prime Minister, in others a generally-accepted leader emerged.

   She requested that no announcement be made of the promised book until she had more of it down on paper. Having put some distance between herself and her putative book, she relaxed by continuing to lecture and to work on other projects.

   One of the criteria of design selection is therefore availability of applicable analysis techniques specifically adapted to the putative design. When Robert Stephenson was considering possible designs for a railway bridge over the Menai, he considered, but eventually rejected, a suspension bridge.

   He was sacked from the Liverpool & Manchester and his place as surveyor was taken by Charles Vignoles, a slender Irishman who had recently carried out an excellent survey of the route between London and Brighton for another putative railway.

   The text was then promptly rejected in France and a little later in the Netherlands and as these were both core founding members the putative constitution was politically finished.

   From the duration of the material (47 minutes) it seems the clear intent was to record an album, rather than just lay down a few tracks. [...] Because the putative album was not released Coltrane never named the originals, which are delineated by Impulse's numbering system.

   Without a metro mayor, negotiation about a devolution deal may have collapsed amid the kind of acrimony evident in other putative city-regions in respect of the perceived imposition of an unwanted elected figurehead (Cox 2016).

   The process of selecting which businesses should be allowed to kiss the ring of putative Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and presumptive Chancellor Reeves, has not been left to chance.

Adjective

1. purported; commonly put forth or accepted as true on inconclusive grounds

   Examples

   the foundling's putative father

   the putative author of the book