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. (transitive, intransitive) 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: please add this translation if you can

• 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.