Other forms: hypotheses
A hypothesis is an idea you put forward so that it can be tested — a guess with reasons behind it. The plants by the road are stunted, and your hypothesis is that winter salt from the gritters is doing it. Then you go and measure.
The plural is hypotheses, said hy-POTH-uh-seez, and getting it wrong is the first mistake almost everyone makes. You form, propose and test a hypothesis, and the result supports it or rules it out — scientists avoid saying they proved one. Outside the laboratory it means any proposal set up for the sake of argument: let us start from the hypothesis that nobody here is lying. The adjective is hypothetical, and a hypothetical question is about a situation that is not real. Keep it apart from theory: a hypothesis is untested, a theory has already survived testing.
1nounhypothesisAn idea put forward as a possible explanation, so that it can be tested.~98%
“Their hypothesis was that the fish were dying from lack of oxygen.”
synonyms: theory, conjecture
2nounstatementA statement taken as true for the sake of an argument.~2%
“Work through the case on the hypothesis that the first witness is mistaken.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
hypothesis is a proposal made to be tested.
Hypothesis is Greek machinery. It reached English through Latin and Middle French from ὑπόθεσις, built out of ὑπό, below, and τίθημι, to put — a placing under. A hypothesis is the block you slide underneath an argument to hold it up. If it will not take the weight, you pull it out and try another one.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Ancient Greek
ὑπόθεσις — base, basis of an argument, supposition
Latin
hypothesis
Middle French
hypothese
English, today
hypothesis
Built from
Recorded since 1596, from Middle French hypothese, from Latin hypothesis, from Ancient Greek ὑπόθεσις (“base, basis of an argument, supposition”) literally “a placing under”, itself from ὑποτίθημι (“to set before, suggest”), from ὑπό (“below”) + τίθημι (“to put, place”). Compare hypothec.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA