hypothesize

hypothesize

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

    From hypothesis + -ize.

    Pronunciation

    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /haɪˈpɒθ.ɪ.saɪz/, /hɪˈpɒθ.ɪ.saɪz/, /həˈpɒθ.ɪ.saɪz/, /-ə.saɪz/
    • (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA(key): /haɪˈpɑ.θəˌsaɪz/, (Canadian raising) [hʌɪˈpɑ.θəˌsaɪz]
      • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):(file)
    • (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA(key): /haɪˈpɒθ.əˌsaɪz/, (Canadian raising) [hʌɪˈpɒθ.əˌsaɪz]
    • (General Australian) IPA(key): /hɑeˈpɔθ.ə.sɑez/
    • (New Zealand) IPA(key): /haɪˈpɒθ.ə.saɪz/, [hɑe̯ˈpɔ̟θ.ə.sɑe̯z]

    Verb

    hypothesize (third-person singular simple present hypothesizes, present participle hypothesizing, simple past and past participle hypothesized) (American spelling, Oxford British English)

    1. (ambitransitive) To assume or assert tentatively on uncertain grounds.
      Synonyms: hypotheticate, guess; see also Thesaurus:suppose
      • 1996, Public Health Reports[1], U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration:
        When hormones signal breast cells to divide more rapidly, scientists hypothesize, they increase breast cancer risk by causing precancerous or cancerous cells to multiply.
      • 2000, Stephen F. Knack, Social Capital and the Quality of Government: Evidence from the United States, page 11:
        Census response is thus a reasonable proxy for civicminded attitudes and cooperation that are hypothesized to improve governmental performance.
      • 2007, John Goldingay, David Payne, Isaiah 40-55 Vol 2: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary[2], Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN:
        Dahood hypothesizes an occurrence of a verb rihham ('to conceive, enwomb')
      • 2007 December 29, Sanford Goldberg, “Must Differences in Cognitive Value be Transparent?”, in Erkenntnis, volume 69, number 2, →DOI:
        I don’t dispute that some cases of this sort—involving a subject who differentially doubts what, pretheoretically, we would take to be one and the same thought-content, entertained twice—might be best described by hypothesizing a difference in content.

    Derived terms

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