Hindu devotees light oil lamps during the Diwali festival, on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern Indian city of Allahabad on November 6, 2014. Diwali, also known as Deepawali, is the five-day Indian festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists around the world. While the holiday is observed by people of different faiths for different reasons, they all acknowledge its underlying theme: the victory of good over evil and the triumph of light over darkness.
Instance. Specific: Hypothesis is usually based on a very specific observation and is limited to that instance. General: A theory is the establishment of a general principle through multiple tests and experiments, and this principle may apply to various specific instances.
A hypothesis is essentially an idea- based on what you know and have observed, what you think is going on. A theory is a hypothesis that has been backed up by evidence and experimentation. Unfortunately, in layman's terms, a theory is often thought to mean a guess, which is not true. When someone talks about a theory outside a scientific context, they usually mean a hypothesis.