hypothesis
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/
ipa: /hɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/
ipa: /həˈpɒθɪsɪs/
ipa: /-əsəs/
ipa: /-əsɪs/
ipa: [haɪˈpʰɑθəsɪs]
Forms: form: hypotheses
Etymology: Recorded since 1596, from Middle French hypothese, from Late Latin hypothesis, from Ancient Greek ὑπόθεσις (hupóthesis, “base, basis of an argument, supposition”, literally “a placing under”), itself from ὑποτίθημι (hupotíthēmi, “I set before, suggest”), from ὑπό (hupó, “below”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “I put, place”). Compare hypothec.
Senses: examples: text: This hypothesis goes by many names, including group resistence, the threshold effect, and the gender paradox. Because the hypothesis holds such wide appeal, it is worth revisiting the logic behind it. The hypothesis is built on the factual observation that fewer females than males act antisocially.
ref: 2001 September 27, Terrie E. Moffitt, Avshalom Caspi, Michael Rutter, Phil A. Silva, Sex Differences in Antisocial Behaviour: Conduct Disorder, Delinquency, and Violence in the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 151:
text: Far too many of us have been taught in school that a scientist, in the course of trying to figure something out, will first come up with a "hypothesis" (a guess or surmise—not necessarily even an "educated" guess). ... [But t]he word "hypothesis" should be used, in science, exclusively for a reasoned, sensible, knowledge-informed explanation for why some phenomenon exists or occurs. An hypothesis can be as yet untested; can have already been tested; may have been falsified; may have not yet been falsified, although tested; or may have been tested in a myriad of ways countless times without being falsified; and it may come to be universally accepted by the scientific community. An understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, requires a grasp of the principles underlying Occam's Razor and Karl Popper's thought in regard to "falsifiability"—including the notion that any respectable scientific hypothesis must, in principle, be "capable of" being proven wrong (if it should, in fact, just happen to be wrong), but none can ever be proved to be true. One aspect of a proper understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, is that only a vanishingly small percentage of hypotheses could ever potentially become a theory.
ref: 2005, Ronald H. Pine, http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/intelligent_design_or_no_model_creationism, 15 October 2005
topics: sciences
coordinate_terms: theory
law[Appendix:Glossary#strict|strict]] use as scientific terms of art>
glosses: A tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem and that can be tested by further observation, investigation, and/or experimentation.
synonyms: word: educated guess
word: ;
word: guess
word: ;
word: supposition
word: conjecture
word: ;
word: thesis
word: ;
word: theory[Appendix:Glossary#broad|broadly]] synonymous>
word: assumption
word: conjecture
word: educated guess
word: foreguess
word: given
word: guess
word: guesstimate
word: hunch
word: hypothesis
word: inference
word: overhope
word: posit
word: possibility
word: postulation
word: presumption
word: reckoning
word: speculation
word: supposition
word: surmise
word: suspicion
word: theory
word: working hypothesis
glosses: An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: The antecedent of a conditional statement.
Derived terms: alternative hypothesis
aquatic ape hypothesis
Avogadro's hypothesis
conspiracy hypothesis
continuum hypothesis
cosmic censorship hypothesis
counterhypothesis
critical brain hypothesis
dark forest hypothesis
documentary hypothesis
efficient market hypothesis
ergodic hypothesis
expectations hypothesis
Fisher hypothesis
five-minute hypothesis
Gaia hypothesis
generalized continuum hypothesis
God hypothesis
Griesbach hypothesis
Habakkuk hypothesis
hypothesist
hypothesize
hypothetic
hypothetical
hypothetically
induction hypothesis
inductive hypothesis
interface hypothesis
just-world hypothesis
level-ordering hypothesis
mafia hypothesis
Medea hypothesis
Monro-Kellie hypothesis
multihypothesis
null hypothesis
Omphalos hypothesis
Out of India hypothesis
ovulatory shift hypothesis
permanent income hypothesis
Prout's hypothesis
Rare Earth hypothesis
Red Queen hypothesis
Riemann hypothesis
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Schinzel's hypothesis H
sexy son hypothesis
simulation hypothesis
subhypothesis
swoon hypothesis
trickle down hypothesis
trickle-down hypothesis
Wellhausen's hypothesis
working hypothesis
zombie hypothesis