working hypothesis en · NOUN
Meanings
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A hypothesis that is weakly held, tentatively, as a best guess; such a hypothesis among several plausible ones that is driving or underpinning a scientific team's work at a given time.
Astronomers at one time considered the possibility that all stars had the same luminosity as the sun and tried to derive the distances of stars from how bright they appeared to be. This working hypothesis, although a good idea at the time, led to a number of inconsistencies.
1968, Donald D. Clayton, Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis:Brand thinks it is a "plausible working hypothesis" that properties are legitimate objects, as good as "specifiable groupings of particulars" - which presumably sets or classes are.
1979, R. M. Martin, Pragmatics, Truth, and Language:By a process of elimination of the various possibilities we have set up a working hypothesis that the rock-cut installation was for the purpose of making and storing wine.
1964, James B. Pritchard, Winery, Defenses, and Soundings at Gibeon:Among these several hypotheses, the one judged as most likely was our working hypothesis during the autumn semester.
We do not know that this is the case, but it is an hypothesis which cannot be refuted and is simpler than any other possible hypothesis. I shall therefore adopt it as a working hypothesis in what follows.
1927, Bertrand Russell, An Outline of Philosophy:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| working hypotheses | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Hypernyms
Relateds
Translations (7)
hu munkahipotézis (hypothesis that is unverified yet tentatively chosen) · de Arbeitshypothese (hypothesis that is unverified yet tentatively chosen) · pl hipoteza robocza (hypothesis that is unverified yet tentatively chosen) · sv arbetshypotes (hypothesis that is unverified yet tentatively chosen) · fi työhypoteesi (hypothesis that is unverified yet tentatively chosen) · nl werkhypothese (hypothesis that is unverified yet tentatively chosen) · fr hypothèse de travail (hypothesis that is unverified yet tentatively chosen)