nonhypothetical

Nonhypothetical is an adjective used to describe statements, conclusions, or considerations that refer to actual facts, real conditions, or events, rather than imagined, assumed, or conditional scenarios.

It is formed from the prefix non- meaning “not” and hypothetical, which derives from the Greek hypothetikos “placed under a hypothesis.” In ordinary language, nonhypothetical contrasts with hypothetical or conjectural statements, emphasizing matters that are factual rather than speculative.

In philosophy and logic, nonhypothetical language typically concerns propositions that are not contingent on a conditional hypothesis. In science and empirical discourse, nonhypothetical evidence or claims are those supported by observation, measurement, or experiment rather than thought experiments or hypothetical reasoning.

Examples include statements such as “Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level” or “The Earth orbits the Sun,” which describe real-world facts under specified conditions. By contrast, a statement like “If water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level, then pressure equals 1 atmosphere” contains a hypothetical premise.

Because many statements are provisional and depend on context, the term nonhypothetical is often clarified with explicit references to the conditions under which a claim holds. It is closely related to terms such as empirical, factual, actual, and real-world.