Reference.com

52 results for: Deduction

Dictionary Entries (13 more entries. View all »)
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Cite This Source
de·duc·tion    Audio Help   [di-duhk-shuhn] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.the act or process of deducting; subtraction.
2.something that is or may be deducted: She took deductions for a home office and other business expenses from her taxes.
3.the act or process of deducing.
4.something that is deduced: His astute deduction was worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
5.Logic.
a.a process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises presented, so that the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true.
b.a conclusion reached by this process. Compare induction (def. 4).
[Origin: 1400–50; late ME deduccioun (< AF) < L déductiōn- (s. of déductiō) a leading away. See deduct, -ion]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Thesaurus Entries
  Roget's II: The New ThesaurusCite This Source
Main Entry:  deduction
Part of Speech:  noun
Definition:  An amount deducted.
Synonyms:  abatement, discount, rebate, reduction
Source:  Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition
by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary.
Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
  Roget's II: The New ThesaurusCite This Source
Main Entry:  deduction
Part of Speech:  noun
Definition:  A position arrived at by reasoning from premises or general principles.
Synonyms:  conclusion, illation, illative, inference, judgment
Source:  Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition
by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary.
Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
  Synonym Collection v1.1Cite This Source
Main Entry:  deduction
Part of Speech:  noun
Synonyms:  calculation, conclusion, conjecture, corollary, discount, exemption, illation, inference, markdown, rebate, understanding, subtraction, write-off
Source:  Synonym Collection v1.1
Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC.

Encyclopedia Articles (34 more entries. View all »)
Columbia Electronic EncyclopediaCite This Source


deduction, in logic, form of inference such that the conclusion must be true if the premises are true. For example, if we know that all men have two legs and that John is a man, it is then logical to deduce that John has two legs. Logicians contrast deduction with induction, in which the conclusion might be false even when the premises are true. Deduction has to do with necessity; induction has to do with probability. The famous Aristotelian syllogism is one species of deductive reasoning, which was greatly extended by the development of symbolic logic.

See R. J. Ackermann, Modern Deductive Logic (1971); P. J. Hurley A Concise Introduction to Logic (1985).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press




View results from: Dictionary | Thesaurus | Encyclopedia | All Reference | the Web








Perform a new search, or try your search for "Deduction" at: