Definition of "putative"

[T]he lady . . insisted upon going herself, requesting me to mind for a second the baby. . lo! the baby awoke and stared at me with a pair of big frightened eyes, which the little thing in another moment rolled in all directions, as if in search of its putative mother.

1879 November 9, Maurice Mauris, “A Materialistic Artist”, in New York Times, page 10

Just as Prince Sihanouk is fronting for the Khmer Rouge today . . so also was he their putative leader from 1970 to 1975.

1989, William E. Colby and Jeremy J. Stone, "US must support Thailand if Cambodia is to survive," Milwaukee Sentinel (Los Angeles Times Service), 28 Oct. (retrieved 15 Sep. 2009)

Karr's past does raise suspicions. When he was arrested in Bangkok, he was living in a dormitory-like guesthouse in a neighborhood frequented by sex tourists. . Of course, Karr's putative pedophilia would not make him guilty of murder.

2006 August 18, Unmesh Kher, “No Neat Endings for the JonBenet Case”, in Time

I’ve been subject to several gropings and gross jibes of the type you’d expect behind a junior-high gym dance, and they’ve been delivered by grownups, putative pals, not one of whom I even dimly considered getting jiggy with.

2016 August 11, Mary Karr, “The Crotchgrabber”, in The New Yorker‎