Wiktionary
n. (context statistics English) A rival hypothesis to the null hypothesis, whose likelihoods are compared by a statistical hypothesis test.
Wikipedia
In statistical hypothesis testing, the alternative hypothesis (or maintained hypothesis or research hypothesis) and the null hypothesis are the two rival hypotheses which are compared by a statistical hypothesis test.
In the domain of science two rival hypotheses can be compared by explanatory power and predictive power.
Usage examples of "alternative hypothesis".
For the only alternative hypothesis terrified me to the roots of my soul: it was that I had not been mistaken during my first voyage.
The alternative hypothesis is not legend, nor exaggeration, nor the apparitions of a ghost.
The philosopher Didactylos has summed up an alternative hypothesis as 'Things just happen.
An alternative hypothesis would be that it was waiting for someone of reasonable status to speak to.
An alternative hypothesis, proposed sometime in the last century, says, simply, that rather than a single event, all possible outcomes occur, however 'probable' or 'improbable' they may be.
An alternative hypothesis, proposed sometime in the last century, says, simply, that rather than a single event, all possible outcomes occur, however probable or improbable they may be.
Before jumping to conclusions, though, Jacen had wanted to test every alternative hypothesis.
This explanation seems, on the whole, more likely than the alternative hypothesis that such beliefs were due to mal-observation.