Pronounced /səpoʊzd/ or /səpoʊst/ for meanings 1 to 4, and /səpoʊzɪd/ for meaning 5.
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
If you say that something is supposed to happen, you mean that it is planned or expected. Sometimes this use suggests that the thing does not really happen in this way.
He produced a hand-written list of nine men he was supposed to kill...
Public spending is supposed to fall, not rise, in the next few years.
PHRASE
2.
If something was supposed to happen, it was planned or intended to happen, but did not in fact happen.
He was supposed to go back to Bergen on the last bus, but of course the accident prevented him...
PHRASE
3.
If you say that something is supposed to be true, you mean that people say it is true but you do not know for certain that it is true.
‘The Whipping Block’ has never been published, but it’s supposed to be a really good poem...
‘The President cannot be disturbed,’ his son is supposed to have told an early morning caller.
PHRASE
4.
You can use ‘ be supposed to ’ to express annoyance at someone’s ideas, or because something is not happening in the proper way.
You’re supposed to be my friend!...
What am I supposed to have done wrong now?
PHRASE [ feelings ]
5.
You can use supposed to suggest that something that people talk about or believe in may not in fact exist, happen, or be as it is described.
Not all indigenous regimes were willing to accept the supposed benefits of British trade.
= alleged
ADJ : ADJ n
• sup‧pos‧ed‧ly
He was more of a victim than any of the women he supposedly offended...
ADV : ADV with v , ADV with cl / group