hypothesize

English

Alternative forms

• hypothesise (non-Oxford British English)

Etymology

From hypothesis +‎ -ize.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /haɪˈpɒθ.ɪ.saɪz/, /hɪˈpɒθ.ɪ.saɪz/, /həˈpɒθ.ɪ.saɪz/, /-ə.saɪz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /haɪˈpɑː.θə.saɪz/

  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

    (file)

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.

Related terms

• hypothetical
• hypothesizable

Translations

to believe or assert

• Albanian: hamendësoj, supozoj (sq)
• Bulgarian: предполагам (bg) (predpolagam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 假設 / 假设 (zh) (jiǎshè), 推測 / 推测 (zh) (tuīcè)

• Czech: hypotetizovat
• Danish: hypotetisere
• Finnish: jossitella (fi), arvailla (fi), arvuutella (fi)
• French: émettre (fr) l'hypothèse (fr), faire (fr) l'hypothèse (fr), supposer (fr)
• German: vermuten (de)
• Icelandic: setja fram tilgátu, leggja fram tilgátu, gefa sér, setja sem svo að, gera ráð fyrir, ganga út frá
• Italian: ipotizzare (it)
• Japanese: 仮定する (かていする, katei suru)
• Maori: marohi, mārohirohi
• Portuguese: supor (pt)
• Romanian: emite (ro) ipoteze, face (ro) ipoteze
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: hypotetizovať
• Spanish: hipotetizar, suponer (es)
• Swedish: hypotetisera (sv)
• Ukrainian: будувати (uk) (buduvaty) гіпотезу (hipotezu), висувати (vysuvaty) гіпотезу (hipotezu), робити (uk) (robyty) припущення (prypuščennja)

Further reading

• “hypothesize”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.