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That is supposedly/supposably wrong

or

That is supposed to be wrong

Which is correct?

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  • 2
    What is the context? What are you trying to convey?
    – psmears
    Commented Apr 9, 2021 at 9:53

1 Answer 1

1

"this is supposably wrong" means (at least to my ear) "it is just barely possible that this is wrong", whereas "this is supposedly wrong" or "this is supposed to wrong" means that "it is generally thought that this is wrong".

A complication with supposedly is that it sometimes is used to mean "as commonly but falsely believed", and the first dictionary.com definition that I cite below would have us believe that this is the most common meaning of supposedly. That has been neither my experience nor that of other lexicographers. The merriam-webster.com definition cited below does not even mention this "common fallacy" meaning.

supposably cannot have this "common fallacy" meaning.

See definition of supposable, definition of supposedly and another definition of supposedly

In the vast majority of cases, people using the word supposably in a context like OP's really mean supposedly.

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