hypothesis
Pluralhypotheses
- 1A tentative explanation for an observation or phenomenon that can be tested through further observation, investigation, or experimentation.
The researchers' hypothesis linked the fish die-off to runoff from nearby farms.
Several competing hypotheses attempt to explain the region's sudden bee decline.
Similartheory, explanation, conjecture, proposition, thesis
Note
A scientist's word for an idea built to be tested. It earns the name by risking failure: further observation or experiment could support it or knock it down. Ronald H. Pine (2005) objects that many are taught in school to treat it as a mere guess, not even an educated one. A theory, by contrast, has already survived substantial testing. The plural is hypotheses, as in competing hypotheses.
- 2Something assumed to be true, without proof, so that an argument can be made or an investigation carried out.
Suppose, as a working hypothesis, that the manuscript was copied by two different scribes.
The detective proceeded on the hypothesis that the thief had a key to the building.
Similarassumption, theory, guess, supposition, conjecture
Note
The meaning closest to the Greek: hupóthesis, literally "a placing under," was the base an argument stands on. English took the word from Middle French by 1596. Here nothing needs testing. You proceed as if the claim were true and see where it leads. Supposition is the nearest synonym. Conjecture and guess lean further toward doubt, and theory overlaps only broadly.
- 3In a conditional statement, the antecedent: the clause that states the condition.
In 'If wages rise, prices will follow,' the hypothesis is the clause about wages.
Diagramming the sentence, she labeled the hypothesis and the conclusion separately.
Similarantecedent, condition
Oppositeconclusion, consequent
Note
In the grammar of conditionals the word keeps its Greek sense most literally: a "placing under," the clause the rest of the sentence stands on. It is the P of "if P, then Q," and it pairs with the consequent or conclusion. Do not confuse it with the testable scientific guess. Here nothing is tested. The clause is simply supposed, so that the conclusion can follow from it.
Practice
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Origin
Recorded since 1596, hypothesis came through Middle French hypothese and Late Latin hypothesis from Ancient Greek hupóthesis ("base, basis of an argument, supposition"), literally "a placing under," built from hupó ("below") plus títhēmi ("I put, place").