circumstantial

adjective

1. 1

   Pertaining to or dependent on circumstances, especially as opposed to essentials; incidental, not essential.

   We must therefore distinguish between the essentials in religious worship […] and what is merely circumstantial.

   Evidence for cannibalism abounds - even if circumstantial - both from the modern world and throughout history, but academic anthropology has found itself in a funk of denial.

2. 2

   Involving evidence that relies on inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact, thus, suggesting guilt but not directly proving it.

   It is unlikely he will be convicted; the evidence against him is circumstantial at best.

   Never, he said, in the course of his long experience, had he known a charge of murder rest on slighter evidence. Not only was it entirely circumstantial, but the greater part of it was practically unproved.

3. 3

   Abounding with minor circumstances; in great detail; particular.

   My Unkle's account is more circumstantial I must confess—but I believe mine is the true one for all that.

   For although my information appears too direct and circumstantial to be fictitious, yet the magnitude of the enterprise, the desperation of the plan, and the stupendous consequences with which it seems pregnant, stagger my belief […]

   Second-hand but clearly from the best possible source - the King himself - [the story] is highly circumstantial, taking twenty-two pages of text.

4. 4

   Full of circumstance or pomp; ceremonial.

noun

1. 1

   Something incidental to the main subject, but of less importance.

   the circumstantials of religion

2. 2

   An adjunct or circumstant.

Forms

plural

circumstantials

comparative

more circumstantial

superlative

most circumstantial