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Notion vs Hypothesis - What's the difference?

notion | hypothesis | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between notion and hypothesis

is that notion is mental apprehension of whatever may be known, thought, or imagined; idea, concept while 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.

notion

Noun

(en noun)
  • Mental]] apprehension of whatever may be known, [[think, thought, or imagined; idea, concept.
  • * (Isaac Newton) (1642-1727)
  • What hath been generally agreed on, I content myself to assume under the notion of principles.
  • * (George Cheyne) (1671-1743)
  • Few agree in their notions about these words.
  • * (Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)
  • That notion of hunger, cold, sound, color, thought, wish, or fear which is in the mind, is called the "idea" of hunger, cold, etc.
  • * (Alexander Hamilton) (ca.1756-1804)
  • Notion , again, signifies either the act of apprehending, signalizing, that is, the remarking or taking note of, the various notes, marks, or characters of an object which its qualities afford, or the result of that act.
  • A sentiment; an opinion.
  • * (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • The extravagant notion they entertain of themselves.
  • * (John Henry Newman) (1801-1890)
  • A perverse will easily collects together a system of notions to justify itself in its obliquity.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=“Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke
  • (label) Sense; mind. Shakespeare.
  • (label) An invention; an ingenious device; a knickknack.
  • Any small article used in sewing and haberdashery, such as a button or zipper.
  • (label) Inclination; intention; disposition.
  • See also

    * concept * conception * meaning

    hypothesis

    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.
  • Synonyms

    * supposition * theory * thesis * educated guess * guess * See also

    Derived terms

    * hypothesize * hypothetic * hypothetical * hypothetically