A synonym for "possible hypothesis" in academic context
I am currently translating into English an academic article discussing some recently-proposed hypotheses for deciphering certain ancient steles. Those hypotheses include the so-called "Greek hypothesis", "Celtic hypothesis" etc. As the word "hypothesis" keeps appearing over and over in my current draft, I am looking for some synonym to break this monotony. The French original uses the word "piste" meaning "track,trail,lead" tempting me to use one of these, except that I never saw those words used in that figurative sense in English. Any quotes coming to your mind ?
Some example sentences :
The Greek [synonym here] explains those similarities better than the Celtic [synonym here].
Let us now explore another aspect of this Greek [synonym here].
Solution 1:
Although a layman may treat the terms suggested in another answer as interchangeable, they are not totally so. About Education has an article explaining that more precise definitions are demanded in scientific registers:
Words have precise meanings in science. For example, 'theory', 'law', and 'hypothesis' don't all mean the same thing. Outside of science, you might say something is 'just a theory', meaning it's supposition that may or may not be true. In science, a theory is an explanation that generally is accepted to be true. Here's a closer look at these important ... terms.
A hypothesis is an educated guess, based on observation.
It's a prediction of cause and effect. Usually, a hypothesis can be supported or refuted through experimentation or more observation. A hypothesis can be disproven, but not proven to be true.
A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing.
A theory is valid as long as there is no evidence to dispute it. Therefore, theories can be disproven.
'Assumption' would not normally be used to identify a hypothesis of major significance, and '[educated] guess' never.
'Conjecture' and 'postulate' are closer to 'hypothesis', but (and even scientific usage is not as precise as scientists might like to imagine) the order conjecture ...... postulate ... hypothesis probably indicates increasing confidence in the truth of the statement.
And it would be a mistake to break up set compounds such as 'Greek hypothesis', 'Riemann hypothesis', 'Goldbach's conjecture', 'Twin prime conjecture'.
Solution 2:
There are a lot of words actually. Some are
theory
conjecture
postulate
assumption
All are synonymous to hypothesis and mean
a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation