different between conception vs hypothesis

English

Etymology

From Middle English concepcioun, borrowed from Old French conception, from Latin concepti? (“a comprehending, a collection, composition, an expression, also a becoming pregnant”), from concipi?, past participle conceptus (“conceive”); see conceive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?s?p??n/

Noun

conception (countable and uncountable, plural conceptions)

1. The act of conceiving.
2. The state of being conceived; the beginning.
3. The fertilization of an ovum by a sperm to form a zygote.
4. The start of pregnancy.
5. The formation of a conceptus or an implanted embryo.
6. The power or faculty of apprehending of forming an idea in the mind; the power of recalling a past sensation or perception; the ability to form mental abstractions.
7. An image, idea, or notion formed in the mind; a concept, plan or design.

Antonyms

• misconception

Coordinate terms

• inception

Related terms

• conceive
• concept

Translations

See also

• contraception

References

• conception in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• conception in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• nonectopic

French

Etymology

From Old French conception, concepcion, borrowed from Latin conceptio, conceptionem (“comprehension, understanding”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.s?p.sj??/

Noun

conception f (plural conceptions)

1. conception (of a child)
2. conception (beginning, start)
3. ability to understand
4. viewpoint; angle
5. concept, idea

Related terms

• concept
• concevoir

Further reading

• “conception” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Alternative forms

• concepcion

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin conceptio, conceptionem (“comprehension, understanding”).

Noun

conception f (oblique plural conceptions, nominative singular conception, nominative plural conceptions)

1. conception (of a child)

Descendants

• ? Middle English: concepcioun, concepcion, concepciun, concepcyon, consepcioun
  • English: conception
• French: conception

English

Etymology

Recorded since 1596, from Middle French hypothese, from Late Latin hypothesis, from Ancient Greek ???????? (hupóthesis, “base, basis of an argument, supposition”, literally “a placing under”), itself from ????????? (hupotíth?mi, “I set before, suggest”), from ??? (hupó, “below”) + ?????? (títh?mi, “I put, place”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ha??p???s?s/, /h??p???s?s/, /h??p???s?s/, /-?s?s/, /-?s?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ha??p??.??.s?s/

Noun

hypothesis (plural hypotheses)

1. (sciences) Used loosely, a tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem that can be tested by further observation, investigation and/or experimentation. As a scientific term of art, see the attached quotation. Compare to theory, and quotation given there.
   • 2005, Ronald H. Pine, http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/intelligent_design_or_no_model_creationism, 15 October 2005:

     Far too many of us have been taught in school that a scientist, in the course of trying to figure something out, will first come up with a "hypothesis" (a guess or surmise—not necessarily even an "educated" guess). ... [But t]he word "hypothesis" should be used, in science, exclusively for a reasoned, sensible, knowledge-informed explanation for why some phenomenon exists or occurs. An hypothesis can be as yet untested; can have already been tested; may have been falsified; may have not yet been falsified, although tested; or may have been tested in a myriad of ways countless times without being falsified; and it may come to be universally accepted by the scientific community. An understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, requires a grasp of the principles underlying Occam's Razor and Karl Popper's thought in regard to "falsifiability"—including the notion that any respectable scientific hypothesis must, in principle, be "capable of" being proven wrong (if it should, in fact, just happen to be wrong), but none can ever be proved to be true. One aspect of a proper understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, is that only a vanishingly small percentage of hypotheses could ever potentially become a theory.

2. (general) An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
3. (grammar) The antecedent of a conditional statement.

Synonyms

• supposition
• theory
• thesis
• educated guess
• guess
• See also Thesaurus:supposition

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ???????? (hupóthesis, “hypothesis”, noun).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /hy?po.t?e.sis/, [h??p?t???s??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /i?po.te.sis/, [i?p??t??s?is]

Noun

hypothesis f (genitive hypothesis or hypothese?s or hypothesios); third declension

1. hypothesis

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

• There is also genitive plural hypothese?n.
• The genitive singular is also spelled hypothese?s and the genitive plural hypothese?n.