¹heuristic

adjective heu·ris·tic \hyu̇-ˈris-tik\

: using experience to learn and improve

Full Definition of HEURISTIC

: involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods <heuristic techniques> <a heuristic assumption>; also : of or relating to exploratory problem-solving techniques that utilize self-educating techniques (as the evaluation of feedback) to improve performance <a heuristic computer program>

— heu·ris·ti·cal·ly \-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

See heuristic defined for English-language learners

Examples of HEURISTIC

If Orbitz prevails, its online reservation process alone may blow away the competition. Unlike mainframe-based systems … , Orbitz uses racks of PCs to search fare data, making it easier to scale up computing power. And its intelligent … algorithms evaluate all the possible fares simultaneously instead of employing heuristic shortcuts designed to use as little computing power as possible. —Evan Ratliff, WIRED, September 2000
Because “tradition” has served as a powerful heuristic term, we are always in danger of reifying it … —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Reading Black, Reading Feminist, 1990
Its heuristic principle would be St. Augustine's axiom that the Old Testament is revealed in the New and the New concealed in the Old … —V. B. Leitch, American Literary Criticism from the Thirties to the Eighties, 1988
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Origin of HEURISTIC

German heuristisch, from New Latin heuristicus, from Greek heuriskein to discover; akin to Old Irish fo-fúair he found

First Known Use: 1821

Other Philosophy Terms

dialectic, dualism, epistemology, existentialism, metaphysics, ontology, sequitur, solipsism, transcendentalism

Rhymes with HEURISTIC

artistic, autistic, ballistic, Buddhistic, cladistic, cubistic, deistic, ekistic, eristic, faunistic, floristic, holistic, hubristic, juristic, linguistic, logistic, meristic, monistic, patristic, phlogistic, puristic, simplistic, sophistic, statistic, stylistic, Taoistic, theistic, Thomistic, touristic, tropistic, truistic, veristic, Yahwistic

²heuristic

noun heu·ris·tic \hyu̇-ˈris-tik\

Definition of HEURISTIC

: the study or practice of heuristic (see ¹heuristic) procedure

: heuristic (see ¹heuristic) argument

: a heuristic (see ¹heuristic) method or procedure

Examples of HEURISTIC

“Cult” is best understood not as a descriptor, but as a command, like a law officer's “Halt!” Its purpose is to stop and contain. A more useful heuristic would be to identify precisely the most disturbing practices, beliefs, or incidents in the world of a “cult” … —Robert A. Orsi, Commonweal6 Oct. 2000
Search engines … use heuristics to determine the way in which to order—and thereby prioritize—pages. —Soumen Chakrabarti et al., Scientific American, June 1999
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