Hypothesis vs. Idea — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Hypothesis and Idea
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Compare with Definitions
Hypothesis
A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it.
Idea
In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are abstract concepts. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object.
Hypothesis
A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.
Idea
A thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action
Recently, the idea of linking pay to performance has caught on
It's a good idea to do some research before you go
Hypothesis
Something taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation; an assumption.
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Idea
The aim or purpose
I took a job with the idea of getting some money together
Hypothesis
The antecedent of a conditional statement.
Idea
(in Platonic thought) an eternally existing pattern of which individual things in any class are imperfect copies.
Hypothesis
(sciences) Used loosely, a tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem that can be tested by further observation, investigation and/or experimentation. As a scientific term of art, see the attached quotation. Compare to theory, and quotation given there.
Idea
Something, such as a thought or conception, that is the product of mental activity.
Hypothesis
(general) An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
Idea
An opinion, conviction, or principle
Has some strange political ideas.
Hypothesis
(grammar) The antecedent of a conditional statement.
Idea
A plan, purpose, or goal
She started school with the idea of becoming a doctor.
Hypothesis
A supposition; a proposition or principle which is supposed or taken for granted, in order to draw a conclusion or inference for proof of the point in question; something not proved, but assumed for the purpose of argument, or to account for a fact or an occurrence; as, the hypothesis that head winds detain an overdue steamer.
An hypothesis being a mere supposition, there are no other limits to hypotheses than those of the human imagination.
Idea
The gist or significance
The idea of the article is that investing in green technology can save you money in the long run.
Hypothesis
A tentative theory or supposition provisionally adopted to explain certain facts, and to guide in the investigation of others; hence, frequently called a working hypothesis.
Idea
A sense that something can happen; a notion or expectation
They have this idea that we can just drop what we're doing and go to the park.
Hypothesis
A proposal intended to explain certain facts or observations
Idea
(Music) A theme or motif.
Hypothesis
A tentative theory about the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena;
A scientific hypothesis that survives experimental testing becomes a scientific theory
He proposed a fresh theory of alkalis that later was accepted in chemical practices
Idea
In the philosophy of Plato, a non-physical form or archetype to which beings in phenomenal reality correspond only as imperfect replicas.
Hypothesis
A message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence
Idea
In the philosophy of Kant, a concept of reason that is transcendent but nonempirical.
Idea
In the philosophy of Hegel, absolute truth; the complete and ultimate product of reason.
Idea
(Obsolete) A mental image of something remembered.
Idea
(philosophy) An abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.
Idea
(obsolete) The conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal.
Idea
(obsolete) The form or shape of something; a quintessential aspect or characteristic.
Idea
An image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory.
The mere idea of you is enough to excite me.
Idea
More generally, any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking.
Idea
A conception in the mind of something to be done; a plan for doing something, an intention.
I have an idea of how we might escape.
Idea
A purposeful aim or goal; intent
Yeah, that's the idea.
Idea
A vague or fanciful notion; a feeling or hunch; an impression.
He had the wild idea that if he leant forward a little, he might be able to touch the mountain-top.
Idea
(music) A musical theme or melodic subject.
Idea
The transcript, image, or picture of a visible object, that is formed by the mind; also, a similar image of any object whatever, whether sensible or spiritual.
Her sweet idea wandered through his thoughts.
Being the right idea of your fatherBoth in your form and nobleness of mind.
This representation or likeness of the object being transmitted from thence [the senses] to the imagination, and lodged there for the view and observation of the pure intellect, is aptly and properly called its idea.
Idea
A general notion, or a conception formed by generalization.
Alice had not the slightest idea what latitude was.
Idea
Hence: Any object apprehended, conceived, or thought of, by the mind; a notion, conception, or thought; the real object that is conceived or thought of.
Whatsoever the mind perceives in itself, or as the immediate object of perception, thought, or undersanding, that I call idea.
Idea
A belief, option, or doctrine; a characteristic or controlling principle; as, an essential idea; the idea of development.
That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
What is now "idea" for us? How infinite the fall of this word, since the time where Milton sang of the Creator contemplating his newly-created world, -"how it showed . . . Answering his great idea," -to its present use, when this person "has an idea that the train has started," and the other "had no idea that the dinner would be so bad!"
Idea
A plan or purpose of action; intention; design.
I shortly afterwards set off for that capital, with an idea of undertaking while there the translation of the work.
Idea
A rational conception; the complete conception of an object when thought of in all its essential elements or constituents; the necessary metaphysical or constituent attributes and relations, when conceived in the abstract.
Idea
A fiction object or picture created by the imagination; the same when proposed as a pattern to be copied, or a standard to be reached; one of the archetypes or patterns of created things, conceived by the Platonists to have excited objectively from eternity in the mind of the Deity.
Thence to behold this new-created world,The addition of his empire, how it showedIn prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,Answering his great idea.
Idea
The content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about;
It was not a good idea
The thought never entered my mind
Idea
A personal view;
He has an idea that we don't like him
Idea
An approximate calculation of quantity or degree or worth;
An estimate of what it would cost
A rough idea how long it would take
Idea
Your intention; what you intend to do;
He had in mind to see his old teacher
The idea of the game is to capture all the pieces
Idea
(music) melodic subject of a musical composition;
The theme is announced in the first measures
The accompanist picked up the idea and elaborated it
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