heuristic

[hyoo-ris-tik, yoo-]

adjective

1. serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.

2. encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems independently, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error.

   The course uses a heuristic teaching method to allow students to find answers without being directly taught.

3. of, relating to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.

4. Computers, Mathematics.,  pertaining to a trial-and-error method of problem solving used when an algorithmic approach is impractical.

noun

1. a heuristic method of argument.

2. the study of heuristic procedure.

heuristic

/ hjʊəˈrɪstɪk /

adjective

1. helping to learn; guiding in discovery or investigation

2. (of a method of teaching) allowing pupils to learn things for themselves

3. 1. maths science philosophy using or obtained by exploration of possibilities rather than by following set rules

   2. computing denoting a rule of thumb for solving a problem without the exhaustive application of an algorithm

      a heuristic solution

noun

1. (plural) the science of heuristic procedure

Other Word Forms

• heuristically adverb
• nonheuristic adjective
• unheuristic adjective
• unheuristically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of heuristic¹

First recorded in 1815–25; from New Latin heuristicus, equivalent to Greek heur(ískein) “to find out, discover” + Latin -isticus -istic

Word History and Origins

Origin of heuristic¹

C19: from New Latin heuristicus, from Greek heuriskein to discover

Example Sentences

It operates automatically and effortlessly through heuristic shortcuts.

From Salon

When we rely on meritocracies — when we tell ourselves that we’re capable of judging merit "objectively," whatever that might mean — bias and heuristics inevitably come into play.

From Salon

To use the editor, one uploads a dataset to Umwelt, which employs heuristics to automatically creates default representations in each modality.

From Science Daily

"What's so cool about this is that it adjusts to each person's internal dynamics without any tuning or heuristic adjustments, which is a huge difference from a lot of work in the field," Young said.

From Science Daily

The voters walking into the ballot box, they don't need to know anything else about the candidate other than that party heuristic, that D or that R on the ballot.

From Salon