Hypothetical vs Plausible - What's the difference?
hypothetical | plausible |
Based upon a hypothesis; conjectural
*
(philosophy) conditional; contingent upon some hypothesis/antecedent
A hypothetical situation or proposition
Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; credible: a plausible excuse.
*
Obtaining approbation; specifically pleasing; apparently right; specious.
Using specious arguments or discourse. (rfv-sense)
(obsolete) Worthy of being applauded; praiseworthy; commendable; ready.
As adjectives the difference between hypothetical and plausible
is that hypothetical is based upon a hypothesis; conjectural while plausible is seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; credible: a plausible excuse.As a noun hypothetical
is a hypothetical situation or proposition.hypothetical
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Synonyms
* conjectural * (contingent upon some hypothesis) conditionalAntonyms
* (actual) actual * (in philosophy) categoricalNoun
(en noun)- These hypotheticals serve no purpose until we have more information.
plausible
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- In short, the twin assumptions that syntactic rules are category-based, and that there are a highly restricted finite set of categories in any natural language (perhaps no more than a dozen major categories), together with the assumption that the child either knows'' (innately) or ''learns (by experience) that all rules are structure-dependent ( =category-based), provide a highly plausible model of language acquisition, in which languages become learnable in a relatively short, finite period of time (a few years).
- a plausible''' pretext; '''plausible''' manners; a '''plausible delusion
- a plausible speaker
- (Bishop Hacket)