Hypothesis

A hypothesis (pl.: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducibleprediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess. If a hypothesis is repeatedly independently demonstrated by experiment to be true, it becomes a scientific theory. In colloquial usage, the words hypothesis and theory are often used interchangeably, but this is incorrect in the context of science.

A working hypothesis is a provisionally-accepted hypothesis used for the purpose of pursuing further progress in research. Working hypotheses are frequently discarded, and often proposed with knowledge (and warning) that they are incomplete and thus false, with the intent of moving research in at least somewhat the right direction, especially when scientists are stuck on an issue and brainstorming ideas.

In formal logic, a hypothesis is the antecedent in a proposition. For example, in the proposition "If P, then Q", statement P denotes the hypothesis (or antecedent) of the consequentQ. Hypothesis P is the in a (possibly counterfactual) "" question. The adjective "hypothetical" (having the nature of a hypothesis or being assumed to exist as an immediate consequence of a hypothesis), can refer to any of the above meanings of the term "hypothesis".