different between hypothesis vs suggestion

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

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman suggestioun, Old French suggestion (modern French suggestion), from Latin suggesti?, from suggero (“suggest”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /s??d???st??n/, [s??d????t??n]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /s???d???st??n/, /s??d???st??n/
• Hyphenation: sug?ges?tion

Noun

suggestion (countable and uncountable, plural suggestions)

1. (countable) Something suggested (with subsequent adposition being for)

   I have a small suggestion for fixing this: try lifting the left side up a bit.

   Traffic signs seem to be more of a suggestion than an order.

2. (uncountable) The act of suggesting.

   Suggestion often works better than explicit demand.

3. (countable, psychology) Something implied, which the mind is liable to take as fact.

   He's somehow picked up the suggestion that I like peanuts.

4. The act of exercising control over a hypnotised subject by communicating some belief or impulse by means of words or gestures; the idea so suggested.
5. (law, countable) information, insinuation, speculation, as opposed to a sworn testimony and evidence

Synonyms

• (something suggested): hint, incitement, proposal
• See also Thesaurus:advice

Derived terms

Related terms

• suggest
• suggestive

Translations

Finnish

Noun

suggestion

1. Genitive singular form of suggestio.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin suggesti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy?.??s.tj??/

Noun

suggestion f (plural suggestions)

1. suggestion; proposal
2. suggestion (psychology, etc.)

Derived terms

• boîte à suggestions

Related terms

• suggérer

Further reading

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

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin suggesti?.

Noun

suggestion f (oblique plural suggestions, nominative singular suggestion, nominative plural suggestions)

1. suggestion; proposal

References

• suggestion on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub