decision tree

noun

: a tree diagram which is used for making decisions in business or computer programming and in which the branches represent choices with associated risks, costs, results, or probabilities

Examples of decision tree in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So while the team has plenty of questions to address this offseason, the decision tree’s roots begin at how much, and even whether, to pay Jones and Barkley. —Howard Megdal, Forbes, 25 Jan. 2023

Exactly when the crew of Columbia would enact these power- and oxygen-saving measures depended on a short decision tree. —Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica, 1 Feb. 2023

The decision tree can start with the question of whether to stay in your house or move. —Marni Jameson, The Mercury News, 4 Jan. 2024

Enlarge / Some of the maps and decision trees mapped out in the book 50 Years of Text Games. —Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 20 June 2023

After a cancer diagnosis, treatment can follow outdated decision trees that depend on a patient’s ability to walk as a benchmark for tolerating chemotherapy. —Elizabeth Cooney, STAT, 13 Dec. 2023

So Lynch suggested something straight from her own research playbook: decision trees and random forests. —Irena Hwang, ProPublica, 8 Aug. 2023

The observations established by some engineers on the Manhattan Project led to the creation, in the late 1950s, of critical path method, an algorithmic model that creates a mini-map (a bit like a decision tree) of all pieces of a development process or project. —WIRED, 1 Oct. 2023

Many decision trees, each with random, slight differences, can be combined into something called a random forest, which aggregates the results of multiple decision trees. —Irena Hwang, ProPublica, 8 Aug. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1957, in the meaning defined above