Definition of DEDUCIBLE

Q: What is the difference between 'abduction' and 'deduction'?

Abductive reasoning, or abduction , is making a probable conclusion from what you know. If you see an abandoned bowl of hot soup on the table, you can use abduction to conclude the owner of the soup is likely returning soon. Deductive reasoning, or deduction , is making an inference based on widely accepted facts or premises. If a meal is described as "eaten with a fork" you may use deduction to determine that it is solid food, rather than, say, a bowl of soup.

Q: What is the difference between 'deduction' and 'adduction'?

Adduction is "the action of drawing (something, such as a limb) toward or past the median axis of the body," and "the bringing together of similar parts." Deduction may be "an act of taking away," or "something that is subtracted." Both words may be traced in part to the Latin dūcere, meaning "to lead."

Choose the Right Synonym for deduce

infer, deduce, conclude, judge, gather mean to arrive at a mental conclusion. infer implies arriving at a conclusion by reasoning from evidence; if the evidence is slight, the term comes close to surmise. from that remark, I inferred that they knew each other deduce often adds to infer the special implication of drawing a particular inference from a generalization. denied we could deduce anything important from human mortality conclude implies arriving at a necessary inference at the end of a chain of reasoning. concluded that only the accused could be guilty judge stresses a weighing of the evidence on which a conclusion is based. judge people by their actions gather suggests an intuitive forming of a conclusion from implications. gathered their desire to be alone without a word

Frequently Asked Questions About deduce

What is the difference between deduction and induction?

Deductive reasoning, or deduction, is making an inference based on widely accepted facts or premises. If a beverage is defined as "drinkable through a straw," one could use deduction to determine soup to be a beverage. Inductive reasoning, or induction, is making an inference based on an observation, often of a sample. You can induce that the soup is tasty if you observe all of your friends consuming it. Read more on the difference between deduction and induction

What is the difference between abduction and deduction?

Abductive reasoning, or abduction, is making a probable conclusion from what you know. If you see an abandoned bowl of hot soup on the table, you can use abduction to conclude the owner of the soup is likely returning soon. Deductive reasoning, or deduction, is making an inference based on widely accepted facts or premises. If a meal is described as "eaten with a fork" you may use deduction to determine that it is solid food, rather than, say, a bowl of soup.

What is the difference between deduction and adduction?

Adduction is "the action of drawing (something, such as a limb) toward or past the median axis of the body," and "the bringing together of similar parts." Deduction may be "an act of taking away," or "something that is subtracted." Both words may be traced in part to the Latin dūcere, meaning "to lead."

Examples of deduce in a Sentence

I can deduce from the simple observation of your behavior that you're trying to hide something from me.

Recent Examples on the Web Alcindor was able to deduce all that after the first day of Biden’s presidency! — Isaac Schorr, National Review, "Jen Psaki Is Living Her Best Life," 25 Jan. 2021 Given that Cretaceous Africa was isolated by high seas, scientists deduce the dinos must have swam hundreds of miles from Europe. — Andrea Thompson, Scientific American, "From Rapping Robots to Glowing Frogs: Our Favorite Fun Stories of 2020," 29 Dec. 2020 Astronomers then compare the brightness of these standard candles with that of fainter ones in nearby galaxies to deduce their distances. — Quanta Magazine, "Astronomers Get Their Wish, and a Cosmic Crisis Gets Worse," 17 Dec. 2020 Play continues until the other players making guesses can deduce that only red things can be taken on the picnic. — Star Tribune, "These new and old family games are perfect for Zoom," 18 Dec. 2020 Unlike Old World wines, New World labels also include tasting notes, which help drinkers deduce whether a bottle might match their palate. — Eamon Barrett, Fortune, "Australia’s ‘approachable’ wine won over China’s middle class. Then came the tariffs," 7 Dec. 2020 The scenes are tough to watch—instead of letting the viewer deduce what was going on, creator Peter Morgan opts to show the painful process of purging in its entirety. — Elise Taylor, Vogue, "Princess Diana’s Real-Life Battle With Bulimia," 15 Nov. 2020 When developers use crypto algorithms that are time constant—meaning the number of operations performed is independent of the input size—the fix prevents RAPL from being used to deduce instructions or data being processed by a CPU. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "Intel SGX defeated yet again—this time thanks to on-chip power meter," 10 Nov. 2020 Ever since Ian Fleming started penning novels about the fictitious spy in the 1950s people have been trying to deduce who inspired the creation. — Drew Hinshaw, WSJ, "Declassified Files Reveal a Possible Spy in Poland—Named James Bond," 22 Oct. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'deduce.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.