A contributor on a Facebook writers’ group posed a question today about when to use the word “supposably” instead of “supposedly.” My gut reaction was to reply that “supposably” was slang. Fortunately, I decided to Google the word and to my amazement found this:
Supposably means “as may be conceived or imagined” and is the adverb form of supposable, which means “capable of being supposed or conceived.” On the other hand, supposedly usually means “allegedly.” The words are often conflated when one usually intends to say “supposedly.”
All I have to say is”Holy Wordsmithing, Batman!”
Now, a good many folks who commented on the post refused to believe the Google entry. They preferred to stick with old knowledge. Supposedly they’d be the ones who supposably might ignore the importance of vaccines leading to dire consequences.
I have no idea if I used the word “supposably” correctly or not. It’s a tricky one and I’ll probably ignore it from now on. Still, it is a word, so don’t disrespect it.
Peace, people!
Praying for Eyebrowz 
Fascinating and good to know!
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Thanks!
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I like that words are Blogworthy.
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I’ve been struggling with writing anything at all lately, so thank goodness for any kind of inspiration.
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Well, darn. I thought supposably was just mispronunciation. You know, like how the people in my end of Florida say ‘pacific’ for ‘specific.’ Funny thing–supposably is red underlined as I type this. They want me to change it to ‘supposedly.’
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I thought the same thing. I do all of my blogging on my iPhone and interestingly enough it accepted supposably with no autocorrect suggestions.
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I suppose you are probably right
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And that might be a first for me!
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I never knew that was a word, either. It’s kind of like those people who refuse to believe “irregardless” is a word (it actually is).
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It’s fairly new though. I think supposably has been one for a long time.
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Yeah it is real. It means supposed or imagined. But, it’s also one of those words that looks and sounds wrong so I personally rarely use it. However, I taught gifted education, so it’s a word that smart kids need to have in their repertoire. They take tests and on a state vocabulary test it’s one of those funky words that might be thrown it. Therefore, my students were taught it. Can’t say I’ve come across it very often other than on state tests or on jeopardy. Lol
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I’m 64 and had no idea until yesterday that supposably was a word. Think of all the missed opportunities!
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I did not know that. It is one of those words that bugs me and I’d most likely never use it because of that. I wonder if it became an entry the same way irregardless became one. As more of a “if you can’t beat them, join them” kind of thing because someone got tired of correcting others for using a word that wasn’t really a word.
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Maybe, although, other commenters have said they’ve been familiar with the word for many years.
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Wow, my mind is blown too. I read a book once where the characters were making fun of each other because one of them said ‘supposably’. I also did a course in my English degree which examined how language changes because of things like this; mistakes in language which then become correct and the norm because everybody starts to use them in language. It’s like glaring grammatical errors in novels, such as ‘get off of me’ or phrases people say incorrectly because they’ve heard it incorrectly and this just travels along the grapevine. Like ‘I could care less’ which makes NO SENSE because if you could care less then that means YOU DO CARE. I’ve seen this in published novels and I just have to roll my eyes. So tales like this supposably tale BLOWS my mind because it really makes you stop and think…. what is correct English anyway?!
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Of course if a character says something in conversation we can deduce that he/she speaks that way. But when the narrator speaks the grammar needs to be spot on.
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Yes exactly. Like when the narrator says such and such ‘peaked’ the character’s interest (genuine thing I read in a book today)… you gotta do a double take.
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Yep. Having published a couple of books I’ve come to realize how easy it is to let something like that slip by.
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Yes, I guess that’s why in publishing houses the work of an editor is extremely important.
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And even then sometimes we find errors. My editor is pretty good at locating all my little oopsies.
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Ahh, the trials of writing a book!
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no no no no … omg. What is happening??? 😀
It hurts my eyes to read these made up words.
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