supposedly

adverb

sup·​pos·​ed·​ly sə-ˈpō-zəd-lē 

 also  -ˈpōzd-lē

: as is supposed : according to what is or was said, claimed, or believed by some

a supposedly true story

a supposedly good restaurant

He had dozens of people around him, supposedly looking after him …

—Philip Norman

Daddy took me to the Legion, to shoot pool supposedly.

—Mary Karr

Synonyms

• apparently
• evidently
• ostensibly
• ostensively
• presumably
• putatively
• seemingly

Examples of supposedly in a Sentence

she's supposedly too sick to come—or so she says

Recent Examples on the Web

This movie has siblings on its mind, which is why it's named after one of the mythical brothers who supposedly founded Rome. —Ew Staff, EW.com, 7 June 2024

Advertisement The idea was supposedly suggested by Claude Arpels of the jewelry firm Van Cleef & Arpels. —Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2024

Contrary to some pop culture chatter about the supposedly expanding number of young adults who don’t want kids, at least some new polling suggests the opposite might be true. —Andre Mouchard, Orange County Register, 2 June 2024

But the perception that United’s supposedly hard-nosed revamp might be altered by the outcome of a single game is damaging in itself. —Rory Smith, New York Times, 31 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1597, in the meaning defined above