conditional
Something conditional is dependent on other factors. You might receive a conditional offer of acceptance from a college, depending on your high school graduation and your maintaining passing grades.
For a clue to the meaning of conditional, look at an opposing term: unconditional surrender, which means someone surrenders and doesn't ask for anything in return. In a conditional surrender, someone will give up only if certain things happen. A conditional agreement is dependent on other factors: a company could make a conditional hire, meaning they'll hire you only if you finish your degree and take a blood test. When you see the word conditional, think "It depends."
-
imposing or depending on or containing a condition“conditional acceptance of the terms”“lent conditional support”“the conditional sale will not be complete until the full purchase price is paid”synonyms:contingent, contingent on, contingent upon, dependant on, dependant upon, dependent on, dependent upon, depending ondetermined by conditions or circumstances that followprobationary, provisional, provisionary, tentativeunder terms not final or fully worked out or agreed uponprovisorysubject to a provisoqualifiedlimited or restricted; not absoluteantonyms:unconditionalnot conditionalvestedfixed and absolute and without contingencyunqualifiednot limited or restricted
-
qualified by reservationssynonyms:qualifiedlimited or restricted; not absolute
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing conditional
Looking to build your vocabulary? Then practice this list of 100 "top words" — the kind that used to be tested on the SAT before 2016. If you're a high school student prepping for the SAT, check out Vocabulary.com's Roadmap to the SAT, which focuses on the vocabulary you'll need to ace today's SAT test.
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean writes letters to the boys for whom she has romantic feelings — letters she never intends to send. When someone starts secretly mailing the letters out, Lara Jean and one of the recipients, Peter, decide to team up and fake a relationship to make their current crushes jealous.
In response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which enabled the U.S. Army to enforce Civilian Exclusion and Civilian Restrictive orders. This resulted in the relocation and internment of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans who were seen as threats to national security. For refusing to move from his home, Fred Korematsu was arrested and convicted. The Supreme Court ruled that military necessity justified the violation of Korematsu's constitutional rights. Although the government eventually admitted its error and made reparations to the surviving internees, this decision, similar to Plessy v. Ferguson, remains an embarrassing example of legalized racism. These words are from the majority opinion written by Hugo Black. Read the full text here.