hypothesis - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

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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, “to set before, suggest”), from ὑπό (hupó, “below”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”). Compare hypothec.

hypothesis (plural hypotheses)

  1. (sciences) A tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem and that can be tested by further observation, investigation, or experimentation.
    Hyponym: working hypothesis (weakly held, but currently operative)
    Coordinate terms: theory, law (distinct in strict use as scientific terms of art)
    • 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[1], Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 151:
      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.
    • 2005, Ronald H. Pine, http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/intelligent_design_or_no_model_creationism, 15 October 2005:
      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.
  2. (general) An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
    Synonyms: educated guess; guess; supposition, conjecture; thesis; theory (broadly synonymous); see also Thesaurus:supposition
  3. (grammar) The antecedent of a conditional statement.

tentative conjecture in science

assumption taken to be true

antecedent of a conditional statement

Translations to be checked

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑπόθεσις (hupóthesis, “hypothesis”, noun).

hypothesis f (genitive **hypothesis or hypotheseōs or hypothesios); third declension

  1. hypothesis
    • 1659, Juan Caramuel Lobkowitz, Caramuelis metalogica disputationes de logicae essentia, proprietatibus, et operationibus continens, volume 3, page 139:
      Erunt igitur in illa hypotheſi Triangulus, Sexangulus, & Circulus una figura.
      Therefore, in that hypothesis, the Triangle, the Hexagon, and the Circle will be one figure.

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem).

1Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.