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Meaning of theoretical in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Classifying Adjective
    1. Definitions
  3. Qualitative Adjective
    1. Definitions
  1. Pronunciation

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  1. Classifying Adjective

    theoretical

    Definitions

    1. based on specialized theory

    Examples

    • « a theoretical analysis »

    Synonyms

    • technical
  2. Qualitative Adjective

    theoretical

    Definitions

    1. concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations

    Examples

    • « theoretical science »

    Synonyms

    • abstractive
    • a priori
    • conjectural
    • divinatory
    • supposed
    • suppositional
    • suppositious
    • supposititious
    • hypothetical
    • hypothetic
    • notional
    • speculative
    • metaphysical
    • theory-based

    Antonyms

    • empirical
    • empiric
  3. 2. concerned with theories rather than their practical applications

    Examples

    • « theoretical physics »

    Synonyms

    • abstract
    • academic
    • pure

    Antonyms

    • applied

Famous quotes

  • « A theoretical grounding in agronomy must, therefore, include knowledge of biological laws. »
    Trofim Lysenko
  • « As a theoretical physicist, I feel at once proud and humble at the thought of the illustrious figures that have preceded me here to receive the greatest of all honors in science, the Nobel prize. »
    Murray Gell-Mann
  • « The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men. »
    Bertrand Russell
  • « The hypothesis may be put forward, to be tested by the s subsequent investigation, that this development has been in large part a matter of the reciprocal interaction of new factual insights and knowledge on the one hand with changes in the theoretical system on the other. »
    Talcott Parsons
  • « If philosophy is practice, a demand to know the manner in which its history is to be studied is entailed: a theoretical attitude toward it becomes real only in the living appropriation of its contents from the texts. »
    Karl Jaspers

Browse dictionary

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  • theoretical
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  • theoretician
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