Possibility
When we are less certain, we use suppose, supposing and what if + past form to talk about future possibility: …

suppose | American Dictionary

suppose
verb[ I/T ]
us/səˈpoʊz/

supposeverb[I/T] (THINK LIKELY)

to expect or believe:
[ I ]"Will you be going with them?" "Yes, I suppose (so)."
[ + (that) clause ]"You don’t suppose (that) they forgot about meeting us, do you?"
Suppose can also show that you are guessing about something:
[ T ]I suppose it’s about six months since I last had the brakes checked.
suppose
conjunction
us/səˈpoʊz/(alsosupposing, us/səˈpoʊ·zɪŋ/)

supposeconjunction (WHAT IF)

(used at the beginning of a sentence or clause) what would happen if:
Suppose we miss the train – what would we do then?
Supposing that you had that opportunity, Mrs. Gallagher, what would you say?

Examples of suppose

suppose
How do the supposed liminal dimensions of some material elements of the ritual relate to fire as a medium of transition?
The ui are supposed to capture any country specific time-invariant effects not included in the explanatory variables.
While labour demand is modelled, labour supply is supposed to follow the demand within the framework of constant nominal wage rates.
How could the way we see things affect our choices, supposing that it does?
However, many problems have remained unsolved, and many supposed facts need to be revised in the light of recent research.
Indeed, genetically informed studies, in many cases, have supported these main effects, although their magnitude is sometimes less than previously supposed.
Throughout this work, it is supposed that in the initial state the two surfaces are not in contact.
In (14) above, overrun the line and run over the line are supposed to be synonymous.
I state them in terms of the ideal concept of normative economics that welfare economics is supposed to encapsulate.
The simulation of threat recognition is supposed to proceed in the following way.
Speakers are not supposed to omit crucial information.
Essentially the fluid is supposed t o be either in irrotational motion or initially to have a uniform vorticity.
The reversal is supposed to start instantaneously and to run at exactly the same speed as the forward simulation.
The ten-second public announcement was supposed to be reassuring.
The agreement was too indefinite to be enforced - how long was the loan supposed to run?
See all examples of suppose
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.