suppose

From Middle English supposen, borrowed from Old French supposer, equivalent to prefix sub- (“under”) + poser (“to place”); corresponding in meaning to Latin supponere (“to put under, to substitute, falsify, counterfeit”), suppositum. See pose.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səˈpəʊz/, [səˈpʰəʊz]
• (US) IPA^(key): /səˈpoʊz/, [səˈpʰoʊz]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (syncope, contraction)
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈspəʊz/, [ˈspəʊz]
  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈspoʊz/, [ˈspoʊz]
• Rhymes: -əʊz

suppose (third-person singular simple present supposes, present participle supposing, simple past and past participle supposed)

1. (transitive) To take for granted; to conclude, with less than absolute supporting data; to believe.

   I suppose we all agree that this is the best solution.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’

2. (transitive) To theorize or hypothesize.

   Suppose that A implies B and B implies C. Then A implies C.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

   • 2013 September 6, David Cox, “Celebrity rules even Hawking's universe”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 13, page 30:

     Just what is supposed to be wrong with the pursuit of fame is not always made clear. Plato disapproved of competition for praise on the grounds that it would tempt the great to bend to the will of the crowd. It is hard to argue with that, and social degradation remains a fear.

3. (transitive) To imagine; to believe; to receive as true.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 13:32:

     Let not my lord suppose that they have slain all the young men, the king's sons; for Amnon only is dead.

   • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:

     As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, […]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. […] I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To reckon to be, to account or esteem as.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii:

     [He] keeps you from the honors of a Queene,
     Being ſuppoſde his worthleſſe Concubine.

5. (transitive) To require to exist or to be true; to imply by the laws of thought or of nature.

   Purpose supposes foresight.

   • 1752, Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote:

     One falsehood always supposes another, and renders all you can say suspected.

6. (transitive) To put by fraud in the place of another.
   • 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 30:

     A Water-monster, called the Nickard, does enter by night the chamber, where a woman is brought to bed, and stealeth when they are all sleeping, the new-born child and supposeth another in its place, which child growing up is like a monster and commonly dumb.

• assume (1,2)
• See also Thesaurus:suppose

• I don't suppose
• supposable
• supposed to (idiom)
• supposedly

• Chinese Pidgin English: supposey

• Audio:

  (file)

suppose

1. inflection of supposer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

suppose

1. third-person singular past historic of supporre