拿來檢驗的假說
核心畫面的正式版本：那塊墊板被放進科學程序裡，接受測試。
unproven explanation · noun · C2
An idea offered as a way to explain something, but that has not yet been shown to be true.
假說
核心畫面
An idea slid underneath a puzzle to hold it up: 'suppose this were true — then everything we see would make sense.' It is put there on purpose, and it stays only as long as it holds; it has not yet been proved.
一塊墊在底下的板子：眼前有一堆看不懂的現象，你先塞一個想法進去撐住它們——「假設是這樣，那這些現象就說得通了」。這塊…更多收起
一塊墊在底下的板子：眼前有一堆看不懂的現象，你先塞一個想法進去撐住它們——「假設是這樣，那這些現象就說得通了」。這塊板子是你自己放的，也隨時可以抽掉：它的身分就是「暫時撐著、還沒被證實」。所以 hypothesis 不是答案，是一個等著被檢驗的立足點。From the word’s history
From Ancient Greek hupóthesis, literally 'a placing under' (hupó 'under' + títhēmi 'to place'). The picture of something slid underneath to support an argument is in the word itself.
來自古希臘文 ὑπόθεσις（hupóthesis），字面就是「放在下面」：hupó「在下面」＋ títhēmi「放置」。也就是說，「墊在底下撐住整個論證的東西」不是後人想像的比喻，而是這個字本來的意思。知道這一點，hypothesis 跟 thesis（放出來的主張）的差別也就清楚了：一個放在下面撐著，一個直接擺出來。
Wiktionary (hypothesis, ὑπόθεσις); Online Etymology Dictionary
Two branches
還沒落地的推測
同一塊墊板，但這次強調的是「它還只是墊著」——不是事實。
guesswork · noun · C2
Ideas or guesses, rather than facts.
臆測
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
hypothesisnoun/haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/
- 1
sciencesA tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem and that can be tested by further observation, investigation, or experimentation.
- This hypothesis goes by many names, including group resistence, the threshold effect, and the gender paradox. Because the hypothesis holds such wide appeal, it is worth revisiting the logic behind it. The hypothesis is built on the factual observation that fewer females than males act antisocially.
- Far too many of us have been taught in school that a scientist, in the course of trying to figure something out, will first come up with a "hypothesis" (a guess or surmise—not necessarily even an "educated" guess). ... [But t]he word "hypothesis" should be used, in science, exclusively for a reasoned, sensible, knowledge-informed explanation for why some phenomenon exists or occurs. An hypothesis can be as yet untested; can have already been tested; may have been falsified; may have not yet been falsified, although tested; or may have been tested in a myriad of ways countless times without being falsified; and it may come to be universally accepted by the scientific community. An understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, requires a grasp of the principles underlying Occam's Razor and Karl Popper's thought in regard to "falsifiability"—including the notion that any respectable scientific hypothesis must, in principle, be "capable of" being proven wrong (if it should, in fact, just happen to be wrong), but none can ever be proved to be true. One aspect of a proper understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, is that only a vanishingly small percentage of hypotheses could ever potentially become a theory.
- 2
An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
- 3
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsThe antecedent of a conditional statement.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。