Hypothesis vs Claim - What's the difference?
hypothesis | claim |
(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:
(general) An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
(grammar) The antecedent of a conditional statement.
A demand of ownership made for something (e.g. claim ownership, claim victory).
A new statement of truth made about something, usually when the statement has yet to be verified.
A demand of ownership for previously unowned land (e.g. in the gold rush, oil rush)
(legal) A legal demand for compensation or damages.
To demand ownership of.
To state a new fact, typically without providing evidence to prove it is true.
To demand ownership or right to use for land.
(legal) To demand compensation or damages through the courts.
To be entitled to anything; to deduce a right or title; to have a claim.
* John Locke
To proclaim.
To call or name.
As nouns the difference between hypothesis and claim
is that hypothesis is 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 while claim is a demand of ownership made for something (e.g. claim ownership, claim victory).As a verb claim is
to demand ownership of.hypothesis
English
(wikipedia hypothesis)Noun
(hypotheses)- 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.
Synonyms
* supposition * theory * thesis * educated guess * guess * See alsoDerived terms
* hypothesize * hypothetic * hypothetical * hypotheticallyclaim
English
Alternative forms
* claym (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)Usage notes
* Demand ownership of land not previously owned. One usually stakes a claim. * The legal sense. One usually makes a claim. SeeVerb
(en verb)- We must know how the first ruler, from whom anyone claims , came by his authority.
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