Meanings
- not comparableAs appears to be true or is stated or accepted to be (though might not be so).
Near-synonyms: reportedly, reputedly, putatively, rumoredly, supposedly, allegedly, ostensibly, possibly, probably, likely, plausibly
3 more examples
In addition, none of the purportedly more common terms of these pairs appear to be especially frequent in modern Indian English.
2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 120After several years Philip Rigoli left the property, describing his family as ‘strange and toxic’, but father Virgilio and brother Joe continued to develop their nation, maintaining that it was the only valid response to a government purportedly discriminating against ‘Christians, white Anglo-Saxons and capitalists’.
2022, Harry Hobbs, George Williams, “Motivations” (chapter 3), in Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 98Australia is working to verify the authenticity of a video that purportedly shows one of its nationals captured by Russian forces while fighting in Ukraine.
2024 December 23, Hilary Whiteman, “Australia investigates video purportedly showing national captured by Russian forces in Ukraine”, in CNNSynonyms: reportedly, reputedly, putatively, rumoredly, supposedly, allegedly, ostensibly, possibly
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbAs appears to be true or is stated or accepted to be (though might not be so).
More synonyms by meaning
adverbbelieved or reputed to be the case
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 表面上
- 表面上 (biǎomiànshang)as appears or is said to be true
Finnish oletettavasti, mukamas
- oletettavastias appears or is said to be true
- mukamasas appears or is said to be true
German angeblich, vermeintlich
- angeblichas appears or is said to be true
- vermeintlichas appears or is said to be true
- vorbeglichas appears or is said to be true
Irish de réir cosúlachta, de réir dealraimh
- de réir cosúlachtaas appears or is said to be true
- de réir dealraimhas appears or is said to be true
Māori ko te tikanga ...
- ko te tikanga ...as appears or is said to be true
Russian предположи́тельно
- предположи́тельно (predpoložítelʹno)as appears or is said to be true
Spanish presuntamente
- presuntamenteas appears or is said to be true
Turkish güya, sözde
- güyaas appears or is said to be true
- sözdeas appears or is said to be true
Cite this entry
purportedly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purportedly
“purportedly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purportedly. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “purportedly,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purportedly.
Source: purportedly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.