"What's the plural of hypothesis?"
The plural of hypothesis is hypotheses.
Definition of hypothesis:
A supposition or assumption based on limited evidence which has yet to be proven or disproven.
Is 'Hypothesis' Plural or Singular?
The plural form of "hypothesis" is "hypotheses." This is because "hypothesis" is a Greek-derived word that follows the rules for forming plurals of Greek-derived words.
In general, Greek-derived words that end in "-is" form the plural by changing the ending to "-es."
The plural of "hypothesis" is "hypotheses" because it is a borrowed word from the Greek language, and it follows the rules of Greek grammar for forming the plural.
In Greek, the plural of "hupothesis," the Greek word from which "hypothesis" is derived, is "hupotheses."
Other examples of Greek-derived words that follow this pattern include "analysis" (singular) and "analyses" (plural), "crisis" (singular) and "crises" (plural), and "thesis" (singular) and "theses" (plural).
The word "hypothesis" comes from the Greek word "hypothesis," which means "base," "foundation," or "assumption."
In scientific contexts, hypotheses are educated guesses or proposed explanations for a phenomenon that is based on limited evidence and is used as a starting point for further investigation.
Plural of Hypothesis Example Sentences
Here are some examples to illustrate the difference between the singular and plural forms of the word "hypothesis":
Example 1:
Singular: "A hypothesis has been proposed to explain the sudden increase in the number of earthquakes in the region".
Plural: "Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain the sudden increase in the number of earthquakes in the region. One suggests that the earthquakes are caused by tectonic activity, while the other suggests that they are caused by the injection of wastewater into the ground".
Example 2:
Singular: "The hypothesis that the Earth is flat has been debunked by scientific evidence".
Plural: "There are many hypotheses about the origins of the universe, but the most widely accepted one is the Big Bang theory".
Fun Fact:
Throughout history multiple hypotheses were put forward to explain why objects tended to fall to Earth when dropped. The Greeks believed it was because the Earth was the center of the Universe.
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