different between hypothesis vs claim

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.

English

Alternative forms

• claym (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English claimen, borrowed from Old French clamer (“to call, name, send for”), from Latin cl?m?, cl?m?re (“to call, cry out”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh?- (“to shout”), which is imitative; see also Lithuanian kalba (“language”), Old English hl?wan (“to low, make a noise like a cow”), Old High German halan (“to call”), Ancient Greek ????? (kalé?, “to call, convoke”), ?????? (kledon, “report, fame”), ??????? (kélados, “noise”), Middle Irish cailech (“cock”), Latin cal? (“to call out, announce solemnly”), Sanskrit ????? (u?a?kala, “cock”, literally “dawn-calling”). Cognate with Spanish llamar and clamar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kle?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Noun

claim (plural claims)

1. A demand of ownership made for something.

   a claim of ownership

   a claim of victory

2. The thing claimed.
3. The right or ground of demanding.

   You don't have any claim on my time, since I'm no longer your employee.

4. A new statement of something one believes to be the truth, usually when the statement has yet to be verified or without valid evidence provided.

   The company's share price dropped amid claims of accounting fraud.

5. A demand of ownership for previously unowned land.

   Miners had to stake their claims during the gold rush.

6. (law) A legal demand for compensation or damages.

Usage notes

• Demand ownership of land not previously owned. One usually stakes a claim.
• The legal sense. One usually makes a claim. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Descendants

• ? Afrikaans: kleim
• ? Dutch: claimen

Translations

Verb

claim (third-person singular simple present claims, present participle claiming, simple past and past participle claimed)

1. To demand ownership of.
2. To state a new fact, typically without providing evidence to prove it is true.
3. To demand ownership or right to use for land.
4. (law) To demand compensation or damages through the courts.
5. (intransitive) To be entitled to anything; to deduce a right or title; to have a claim.

   • We must know how the first ruler, from whom any one claims, came by his authority, upon what ground any one has empire

6. To cause the loss of, usually by violent means.

7. (archaic) To proclaim.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

8. (archaic) To call or name.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Translations

Related terms

• claimable
• claimant
• claimer
• disclaim
• disclaimer

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• malic

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

claim

1. first-person singular present indicative of claimen
2. imperative of claimen

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: klaim