hypothesis testing

British

noun

statistics the theory, methods, and practice of testing a hypothesis concerning the parameters of a population distribution (the null hypothesis ) against another (the alternative hypothesis ) which will be accepted only if its probability exceeds a predetermined significance level, generally on the basis of statistics derived from random sampling from the given population Compare statistical inference

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I don’t think it should even be considered a science, because science has hypothesis testing and it has a well-defined concept of what is means to have evidence.

From Slate • Nov. 11, 2019

Among these are careful theory development, plausibility analysis, statistical sampling and hypothesis testing.

From Scientific American • May 29, 2018

Any experiment in the exploratory stage could be performed without formal statistical hypothesis testing.

From Nature • Feb. 21, 2017

“It’s all about very rigorous hypothesis testing: What is my hypothesis and how would I disprove it?” he said.

From New York Times • Apr. 5, 2015

Polling with Confidence Estimating characteristics of a population, such as the percentage who favor a certain candidate or a particular brand of dog food, is, like hypothesis testing, simple in principle.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023