alternative hypothesis

American  

noun

1. (in the statistical testing of a hypothesis) the hypothesis to be accepted if the null hypothesis is rejected.

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alternative hypothesis British  

noun

1. statistics the hypothesis that given data do not conform with a given null hypothesis: the null hypothesis is accepted only if its probability exceeds a predetermined significance level Compare hypothesis testing null hypothesis

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Compare meaning

How does alternative-hypothesis compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• null hypothesis vs. alternative hypothesis

Example Sentences

"We had to come up with an alternative hypothesis for the formation. This allowed us to predict where potential porpoise feeding sites are, and that is exactly where we found the pits -- always close to sandeel habitats. Our extensive and multidisciplinary data analysis now provides a conclusive explanation for our harbor porpoise pits hypothesis."

From Science Daily

Some virologists say that the new evidence pointing to the Huanan market doesn’t rule out an alternative hypothesis.

From Scientific American

One alternative hypothesis for the rise may be that young children are particularly vulnerable to infections in the upper airway — exactly where Omicron is thought to be more concentrated in comparison with other variants.

From New York Times

"Instead of phosphine in the clouds of Venus, the data are consistent with an alternative hypothesis: They were detecting sulfur dioxide," Dr. Victoria Meadows, a University of Washington professor of astronomy who co-authored the new paper, explained in a press release.

From Salon

Bergstrom and West bemoan that “scientists are stuck using p-values because they don’t have a good way to calculate the probability of the alternative hypothesis”.

From Nature