Noun

(hypotheses)

(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.

(general) An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.

(grammar) The antecedent of a conditional statement.

Noun

(en noun)

An optical or other representation of a real object; a graphic; a picture.

The Bible forbids the worship of graven images .

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=, title=Pixels or Perish , volume=100, issue=2, page=106, magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images , the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

A mental picture of something not real or not present.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}

(computing) A file that contains all information needed to produce a live working copy. (see disk image, executable image and image copy)

Most game console emulators do not come with any ROM images for copyright reasons.

A characteristic of a person, group or company etc., style, manner of dress, how one is, or wishes to be, perceived by others.

(mathematics) Something mapped to by a function.

The number 6 is the image of 3 under ''f'' that is defined as f(x) = 2*x.

(mathematics) The subset of a codomain comprising those elements that are images of something.

The image of this step function is the set of integers.

(obsolete) Show; appearance; cast.

* Dryden

The face of things a frightful image bears.