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Premise vs Hypothesis - What's the difference?

premise | hypothesis |

As nouns the difference between premise and hypothesis

is that premise is a proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition 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.

As a verb premise

is to state or assume something as a proposition to an argument.

premise

English

Alternative forms

* (archaic), premiss

Noun

(en noun)
  • A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • The premises observed, / Thy will by my performance shall be served.
  • (logic) Any of the first propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is deduced.
  • * Dr. H. More
  • While the premises stand firm, it is impossible to shake the conclusion.
  • (usually, in the plural, legal) Matters previously stated or set forth; especially, that part in the beginning of a deed, the office of which is to express the grantor and grantee, and the land or thing granted or conveyed, and all that precedes the habendum; the thing demised or granted.
  • (usually, in the plural) A piece of real estate; a building and its adjuncts (in this sense, used most often in the plural form).
  • * , chapter=19
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises , accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

    Coordinate terms

    * conclusion

    Derived terms

    * major premise * minor premise

    Verb

    (premis)
  • To state or assume something as a proposition to an argument.
  • To make a premise.
  • To set forth beforehand, or as introductory to the main subject; to offer previously, as something to explain or aid in understanding what follows.
  • * Addison
  • I premise these particulars that the reader may know that I enter upon it as a very ungrateful task.
  • To send before the time, or beforehand; hence, to cause to be before something else; to employ previously.
  • * Shakespeare
  • the premised flames of the last day
  • * E. Darwin
  • if venesection and a cathartic be premised

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * * * * * ----

    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