{
  "id": "whether.conditional",
  "term": "whether",
  "sense": "conditional",
  "pos": "adjective",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 4,
  "arena": "whether",
  "domain": "emergence",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "if a condition is one of two different states",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "condition.state",
      "difference.relation",
      "state.condition"
    ],
    "interaction": "the condition is evaluated to determine which of the two different states it takes",
    "novel_properties": [
      "binary evaluation",
      "conditional determination",
      "state discrimination"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The International Space Station adjusts its orbit repeatedly to counteract atmospheric drag and avoid debris.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "In 2008, Iceland's financial system collapsed when foreign investors simultaneously withdrew confidence in its banks.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "Prion proteins in mad cow disease convert normal molecules into misfolded forms, triggering a cascade of neurodegeneration.",
      "domain": "biology"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "condition.state",
      "note": "abstracts",
      "type": "abstracts"
    },
    {
      "id": "difference.relation",
      "note": "enables alternative selection",
      "type": "enables"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "despair.state",
    "marginal.spatial",
    "persistence.endurance",
    "simple.effort",
    "window-exit-versus-removed-part.distinction"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "whether"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "Added 'state.condition' (L2) as a constitutive component because the definition hinges on the idea of a persisting state that is conditionally evaluated. The definition remained accurate but relied on"
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-whether.conditional"
}