Implicature is a technical term in the
pragmatics subfield of
linguistics, coined by
H. P. Grice, which refers to what is
suggested in an utterance, even though neither expressed nor
strictly implied (that is,
entailed) by the utterance. For example, the sentence "
Mary had a baby and got married" strongly suggests that Mary had the baby before the wedding, but the sentence would still be
strictly true if Mary had her baby after she got married. Further, if we add the qualification "
— not necessarily in that order" to the original sentence, then the implicature is
cancelled even though the meaning of the original sentence is not altered.