noun
definition
(chiefly in the plural) Something incidental to the main subject, but of less importance.
example
the circumstantials of religion
adjective
definition
Pertaining to or dependent on circumstances, especially as opposed to essentials; incidental, not essential.
definition
Abounding with minor circumstances; in great detail; particular.
definition
Full of circumstance or pomp; ceremonial.
definition
Suggesting guilt, but not proving it conclusively.
example
It is unlikely he will be convicted; the evidence against him is circumstantial at best.
Examples of circumstantial in a Sentence
All we have is a few unanswered questions and circumstantial evidence.
There was thus very strong circumstantial evidence in favour of fertilization, although the male nucleus was not traced.
Teeth of the carnivorous dinosaur scattered among the bones of the herbivorous dinosaur completed the line of circumstantial evidence.
His famous description of Greek fire has a most provoking mixture of circumstantial detail with absence of verifying particulars.
Strangely enough, however, the government passed over the incriminating conversation with Greenway, and relied entirely on the strong circumstantial evidence to support the charge of high treason against the prisoner.
Anyone fearing repercussions from the circumstantial evidence merely has to tell their story to the DA.
While this method will always be inconclusive, it can be handy circumstantial evidence.
Montan (Stockholm, 1878), is one of the most trustworthy and circumstantial documents relating to the Gustavian era of Swedish history.
I can't say that for sure, but only because there's no direct proof—only circumstantial evidence.
But, as Mr Roberts eloquently put it, they were all circumstantial.
In the sporosac, however, the medusa-individual has become so degenerate that even the documentary proof, so to speak, of its medusoid nature may have been destroyed, and only circumstantial evidence of its nature can be produced.
Thus, the south Judaean or south Palestinian element shows itself in Judaean genealogies and lists; there are circumstantial stories of the rehabilitation of the Temple and the reorganization of cultus; there are fuller traditions of inroads upon Judah by southern peoples and their allies.
The substantially Pauline character of the epistle, for all practical purposes, is to be granted upon either hypothesis, for the author or the editor strove not unsuccessfully, upon the whole, to reproduce the Pauline spirit and traditions The older notion that the personal data in Titus, or in the rest of the pastorals, were invented to lend verisimilitude to the writing must be given up. They are too circumstantial and artless to be the work of a writer idealizing or creating a situation.
The most circumstantial tales are told of imaginary figures, and the most incredible details clothe the lives of the historical heroes of the past.
On one side of the ledger was a huge mass of circumstantial evidence very heavily weighted against the scoutmaster 's story being true.
If the overwhelming circumstantial proof surrounding out of body experiences is true, it could be likely that live ghost sightings are a result of these experiences.
The Annales have been generally regarded as the same with the Commentarii Pontificum cited by Livy, but there seems reason to believe that the two were distinct, the Commentarii being fuller and more circumstantial.
Albeit none of it definitely proved to be duplicity by Byrne beyond strong circumstantial evidence, but together the coincidences were compelling.
I can't say that for sure, but only because there's no direct proof—only circumstantial evidence.
Any acts previous to my decision to take a walk are purely circumstantial in any link to myself.
But to date the evidence released into the public domain has been largely circumstantial.
However each individual area of study is only circumstantial evidence of devil worship.
There is evidence that on more than one occasion he was at least working on a very circumstantial account of the speech.
Moreover, there were reports from the Netherlands and Scandinavia of circumstantial evidence of oospores providing soil-borne inoculum.
Based on rather circumstantial evidence, jets are thought to emerge from the AGN at right angles to the dust torus.
The various reconstructions and compromises by modern apologetic and critical writers alike involve without exception an extremely free treatment of the biblical sources and the rejection of many important and circumstantial data.'
We find in Caesar the first and at the same time the most circumstantial account of the Druids to be met with in the classical writers.
It is, however, difficult to make any scientific use of the records, owing to the indiscriminate manner in which genuine and apocryphal cases are mingled, and circumstantial details are added.
In relation to the view that the spermatia are sexual cells, or at least were primitively so, it must be pointed out that although the actual fusion of the spermatial nucleus with a female nucleus has not been observed, yet in a few cases the spermatia have been seen to fuse with a projecting portion (trichogyne) of the ascogonium, as in Collema and Physcia, and there is very strong circumstantial evidence that fertilization takes place (see later in section on development of ascocarp).
One or two circumstantial forgeries of this kind would form the basis of a scheme for explaining not a few other problems of the case, such as the plain inscription "Jacobus," whom St Elizabeth promptly transformed into a supposititious British archbishop of Antioch, brother to the equally imaginary British Pope Cyriacus.
That does not preclude redaction of the tradition or even legendary accretions in the circumstantial features of the narratives.
Anyone fearing repercussions from the circumstantial evidence merely has to do a fresh install of their OS to replace their GUID.
As early as 1597 the Dutch historian, Wytfliet, describes the Australis Terra as the most southern of all lands, and proceeds to give some circumstantial particulars respecting its geographical relation to New Guinea, venturing the opinion that, were it thoroughly explored, it would be regarded as a fifth part of the world.