hypothesis

Word family

Related topics: Philosophy

hy·poth·e·sis /haɪˈpɒθəsɪs $ -ˈpɑː-/ AWL noun (plural hypotheses /-siːz/)

1 [countableC]RPIDEA an idea that is suggested as an explanation for something, but that has not yet been proved to be true 假设，假说 SYN theory

One hypothesis is that the victim fell asleep while driving.

一种假设是受害人开车时睡着了。

prove/test/support etc a hypothesis

We hope that further research will confirm our hypothesis.

我们希望进一步的研究能证实我们的假设。

hypothesis about

The authors reject the hypothesis about unemployment contributing to crime.

这些作者否定了关于失业导致犯罪的假设。

2 [uncountableU]GUESS ideas or guesses, rather than facts 猜想 SYN speculation

All this is mere hypothesis.

这一切纯属猜想。

Examples from the Corpus

hypothesis• What we are attempting is a hypothesis in which I answer for him, while you ask me questions.• What this means is that there is no way that any hypothesis drawn from Marxist theory can be disproved by empirical investigation.• Possession of such direct observations on expectations would allow us to test the validity of the rational expectations hypothesis in two ways.• Our hypothesis is that the dolphins ate contaminated fish, and this affected the dolphins' immune system.• That, the authors conclude, casts doubt on the refuge hypothesis.• The results of our experiment confirmed this hypothesis.• This hypothesis generates an infinite set of indifference curves which are convex to the L axis.• The evidence, particularly of Willis, would support this working hypothesis.

From Longman Business Dictionary

hypothesishy·poth·e·sis /haɪˈpɒθəsəs-ˈpɑː-/ noun (plural hypotheses /-siːz/) [countableC]

STATISTICS an idea that can be tested to see if it is true or not

These results support the hypothesis that individuals are willing to pay more in order to live in communities that provide high-quality services.

Origin hypothesis

(1500-1600) Greek hypotithenai “to put under, hypothesize”

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