hypothesis

hy·poth·e·sis

noun \hī-ˈpäth-ə-səs\

plural hy·poth·e·ses \-ˌsēz\

Definition of HYPOTHESIS

: a proposition tentatively assumed in order to draw out its logical or empirical consequences and test its consistency with facts that are known or may be determined <it appears, then, to be a condition of the most genuinely scientific hypothesis that it be…of such a nature as to be either proved or disproved by comparison with observed facts—J. S. Mill>