For an infinite cardinal, the Gimel function is . The Gimel hypothesis asserts, for every singular cardinal ,
These are the unavoidable lower bounds supplied by monotonicity of exponentiation and König theorem for cardinal numbers. The hypothesis imposes the least allowed value at singular cardinals; it does not constrain the continuum function on regular cardinals to their successors. Thus it is weaker than Generalized continuum hypothesis. In the case , it says , the usual singular cardinals hypothesis case.