the.com/theory
the educated guess that survived every attempt to murder it.
means A well-tested explanation of how something works, built from evidence and reasoning rather than a single hunch — though in casual speech it can mean a mere guess.
from From Greek 'theōria,' meaning a looking at, viewing, or contemplation — itself from 'theōrein,' to look at or observe, related to 'theōros,' a spectator. The Greeks used it for the act of gazing intently at something to understand it, and a 'theōros' was originally an envoy sent to watch sacred games or consult an oracle. It passed through Late Latin 'theoria' into 16th-century English, where the sense narrowed from 'contemplative looking' to 'a reasoned scheme of how things work.'
- not opinion
- In science it means tested, not casually hunched
- gravity status
- Still technically a theory, yet nobody floats away
- greek root
- From theoria, meaning to look at or contemplate
- falsifiable
- A theory you cannot disprove isn't really science
- everyday slip
- People say theory when they mean wild hunch
darwin's theory of evolution — published 1859 in on the origin of species, explains how species adapt through natural selection
germ theory of disease — developed by pasteur and koch in 1870s-1880s, established that microorganisms cause infectious diseases
big bang theory — proposed 1927 by lemaître, describes the universe's expansion from an initial hot dense state