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I am looking for a single word that means that something is best supported by something else. In the relevant contexts, I would use the word to express the idea that there are better reasons for supporting a position rather than alternative positions. For instance, a context in which I might use such a word is the following:

According to s, x either requires or [is best supported by] y

Of course, the expression "x is best supported by y" is perfectly natural. However, I would like a single word in order to eliminate the extra verbiage, the superlative, and the preposition.

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I am assuming that your relevant contexts are arguments like "We should take the car rather than walking because our shirts won't be drenched with sweat when we get there." "No, we should take the car because if we walked, we'd arrive after the party was over." But I fail to see how that type of logic can be put in the form you suggest. So clearly I am not understanding your "relevant contexts" properly. – Jim May 28 '12 at 17:15
I am thinking of the following contexts: "the belief that p is true requires that one believe that q is true"; "the belief that p is true presupposes the belief that q is true"; "the belief that p is true is best supported by the proposition q." We have words like "requires" and "presupposes" that express entailment relations in these contexts. I am looking for a word that doesn't express an entailment relation, but a relation of "best supporting" or "best justifying." – danportin May 28 '12 at 18:13

closed as too localized by FumbleFingers, JLG, Matt Эллен, kiamlaluno, Mitch Jun 8 '12 at 16:30

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1 Answer

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Linguistic entailment is absolute and can't be cancelled or mitigated. You seem to want a word with less strength and certainty than entailment. Without the exact wording of the sentence, it's hard to find the best choices, but words like imply, suggest, concur with come to mind.

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