Definition of HYPOTHESIS

Choose the Right Synonym for hypothesis

hypothesis, theory, law mean a formula derived by inference from scientific data that explains a principle operating in nature. hypothesis implies insufficient evidence to provide more than a tentative explanation. a hypothesis explaining the extinction of the dinosaurs theory implies a greater range of evidence and greater likelihood of truth. the theory of evolution law implies a statement of order and relation in nature that has been found to be invariable under the same conditions. the law of gravitation

The Difference Between Hypothesis and Theory

A hypothesis is an assumption, an idea that is proposed for the sake of argument so that it can be tested to see if it might be true.

In the scientific method, the hypothesis is constructed before any applicable research has been done, apart from a basic background review. You ask a question, read up on what has been studied before, and then form a hypothesis.

A hypothesis is usually tentative; it's an assumption or suggestion made strictly for the objective of being tested.

A theory, in contrast, is a principle that has been formed as an attempt to explain things that have already been substantiated by data. It is used in the names of a number of principles accepted in the scientific community, such as the Big Bang Theory. Because of the rigors of experimentation and control, it is understood to be more likely to be true than a hypothesis is.

In non-scientific use, however, hypothesis and theory are often used interchangeably to mean simply an idea, speculation, or hunch, with theory being the more common choice.

Since this casual use does away with the distinctions upheld by the scientific community, hypothesis and theory are prone to being wrongly interpreted even when they are encountered in scientific contexts—or at least, contexts that allude to scientific study without making the critical distinction that scientists employ when weighing hypotheses and theories.

The most common occurrence is when theory is interpreted—and sometimes even gleefully seized upon—to mean something having less truth value than other scientific principles. (The word law applies to principles so firmly established that they are almost never questioned, such as the law of gravity.)

This mistake is one of projection: since we use theory in general to mean something lightly speculated, then it's implied that scientists must be talking about the same level of uncertainty when they use theory to refer to their well-tested and reasoned principles.

The distinction has come to the forefront particularly on occasions when the content of science curricula in schools has been challenged—notably, when a school board in Georgia put stickers on textbooks stating that evolution was "a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things." As Kenneth R. Miller, a cell biologist at Brown University, has said, a theory "doesn’t mean a hunch or a guess. A theory is a system of explanations that ties together a whole bunch of facts. It not only explains those facts, but predicts what you ought to find from other observations and experiments.”

While theories are never completely infallible, they form the basis of scientific reasoning because, as Miller said "to the best of our ability, we’ve tested them, and they’ve held up."

Examples of hypothesis in a Sentence

In contrast to Bingham's hypothesis that Machu Picchu was the birthplace of the first Inca and the hearth area of the Inca civilization, current scholars believe that the city was built as a country estate … — Roger Balm, Focus On Geography, Spring 2004 Campus veterans marvel at all the poolside apartments that have sprung up since Georgia popped the income cap off its merit awards. Professors are testing their hypothesis that instead of increasing college enrollment, the state's $1.7 billion scholarship program has been a blessing for the automobile industry—since so many families roll the savings into buying new cars. — Greg Winter, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2002 Isaac Newton initially argued against a parabolic orbit for the … comet of 1680, preferring the hypothesis of two independent comets, one for the inbound and one for the outbound leg. However, Newton later showed that the orbit of the comet could indeed be fit by a parabola. — Daniel C. Boice and Walter Huebner, "Physics and Chemistry of Comets," in Encyclopedia of the Solar System Paul R. Weissman et al., editors, 1999 As stated, our working hypothesis suggests a straightforward way to look for evidence that would confirm or disconfirm it: can you predict what is omitted and what is included in alphabetic representations? — Timothy Shopen and Joseph M. Williams, Standards and Dialects in English, 1980 Other chemists rejected his hypothesis. Their hypothesis is that watching excessive amounts of television reduces a person's ability to concentrate. The results of the experiment did not support his hypothesis.

Recent Examples on the Web

These ailing former imbibers could collectively drag down the health of the non-drinking group, making drinkers and drinking appear healthier, or so the hypothesis goes. — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, "There’s no risk-free amount of alcohol, population-level study finds," 27 Aug. 2018 The long-standing amyloid hypothesis posits that symptoms are triggered by the buildup of amyloid beta brain plaques, but trials of drugs that attempt to clear these plaques have so far flopped. — Melinda Wenner Moyer, Scientific American, "Harder Evidence Builds that Viruses Play a Role in Alzheimer’s," 21 June 2018 For now, though, no one is sure—so the microbe hypothesis cannot be discounted completely. — The Economist, "Seasonal changes in Mars’s air are probably not signs of life. Probably," 7 June 2018 Purpose—in the form of hypothesis testing—has shaped the several short post-2013 field seasons in the Rising Star system. — Lydia Pyne, Ars Technica, "Rising Star found a new species—now it wants to find a new way for paleoanthropology," 20 Dec. 2018 But Faraday couldn’t prove his hypothesis at the time. — Brian Resnick, Vox, "The surprising science of why ice is so slippery," 31 Jan. 2019 Now, the Stanford neuroscientist is embarking on a different kind of daring quest, testing an intriguing but unproven hypothesis: that virtual reality could be used to preserve or even restore vision for patients with glaucoma. — Rebecca Robbins, STAT, "A daredevil researcher’s latest quest: to restore sight lost to glaucoma using virtual reality," 2 July 2018 In a new Science Advances paper Bartsch proposes an innovative hypothesis that spontaneous arousals are due to random electrical activity in a specific set of neurons in the brain—aptly named the wake-promoting neurons. — Dana G. Smith, Scientific American, "Sound Awake: “Noisy” Neurons May Repeatedly Disrupt Your Sleep," 1 May 2018 One hypothesis for the cause of this bug is a conflict with the automatic date and time settings, which screwed up the chronology of texts. — Alexander George, Popular Mechanics, "Why Your iMessage Is Misbehaving and How to Fix It," 8 Nov. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hypothesis.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.