Crossword clues for inference
inference
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Inference \In"fer*ence\, n. [From Infer.]
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The act or process of inferring by deduction or induction.
Though it may chance to be right in the conclusions, it is yet unjust and mistaken in the method of inference.
--Glanvill. -
That which inferred; a truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted or supposed to be true; a conclusion; a deduction.
--Milton.These inferences, or conclusions, are the effects of reasoning, and the three propositions, taken all together, are called syllogism, or argument.
--I. Watts.Syn: Conclusion; deduction; consequence.
Usage: Inference, Conclusion. An inference is literally that which is brought in; and hence, a deduction or induction from premises, -- something which follows as certainly or probably true. A conclusion is stronger than an inference; it shuts us up to the result, and terminates inquiry. We infer what is particular or probable; we conclude what is certain. In a chain of reasoning we have many inferences, which lead to the ultimate conclusion. ``An inference is a proposition which is perceived to be true, because of its connection with some known fact.'' ``When something is simply affirmed to be true, it is called a proposition; after it has been found to be true by several reasons or arguments, it is called a conclusion.''
--I. Taylor.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, from Medieval Latin inferentia, from Latin inferentem (nominative inferens), present participle of inferre (see infer).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context uncountable English) The act or process of inferring by deduction or induction. 2 (context countable English) That which is inferred; a truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted or supposed to be true; a conclusion; a deduction.
WordNet
n. the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation [syn: illation]
Wikipedia
Inference is a live album by pianist Marilyn Crispell and saxophonist Tim Berne which was recorded during the Toronto Jazz Festival in 1992 and released on the Music & Arts label.
Inference is the act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true. The laws of valid inference are studied in the field of logic.
Alternatively, inference is defined as the non-logical, but rational means, through observation of patterns of facts, to see new meanings and contexts for understanding indirectly. Of particular use to this application of inference are anomalies and symbols. Inference, in this sense, does not draw conclusions but opens new paths for inquiry. (See second set of examples.) In this definition of inference, there are two types of inference: inductive inference and deductive inference. Unlike the definition of inference in the first paragraph above, meaning of word meanings are not tested but meaningful relationships are articulated.
Human inference (i.e. how humans draw conclusions) is traditionally studied within the field of cognitive psychology; artificial intelligence researchers develop automated inference systems to emulate human inference.
Statistical inference uses mathematics to draw conclusions in the presence of uncertainty. This generalizes deterministic reasoning, with the absence of uncertainty as a special case. Statistical inference uses quantitative or qualitative (categorical) data which may be subject to random variation.
Usage examples of "inference".
For interest, it is worth mentioning that there are quite orthodox methods of statistical inference that try to bypass Bayesian ideas.
Miss Dunstable mysteriously hinted, that if she were only allowed her full swing on this occasion,--if all the world would now indulge her, she would--She did not quite say what she would do, but the inference drawn by Mrs Gresham was this: that if the incense now offered on the altar of Fashion were accepted, Miss Dunstable would at once abandon the pomp and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh.
Elagabalus fled to the temple at Emesa is a wholly incorrect inference from his permanent residence there as hereditary high priest.
The inference is unavoidable that the confluence of Persian thought and feeling with Hebrew thought and feeling, joined with the materials and flowing in the channels of the subsequent experience of the Jews, formed a mingled deposit about the age of Christ, which deposit was Pharisaism.
This inference appears to be confirmed by the following evidence: As is well known, the plates of the Manuscript Troano are to be taken in reverse order to the paging.
I never heard anything drop from him which supports the probability of such a remark, and certainly there is nothing in his note to warrant the inference of his having made it.
Challis developed his study more particularly with reference to the earlier evolution of Totemism, and he was able by his patient work among the Polynesians of Tikopia and Ontong Java, and his comparisons of those sporadic tribes with the Papuasians of Eastern New Guinea, to correct some of the inferences with regard to the origins of exogamy made by Dr.
Conjectures, especially where infinity is excluded from the Divine attributes, may perhaps be sufficient to prove a consistence, but can never be foundations for any inference.
I also told him, though without names or places or details, the gist of what Boris Telyat-nikov had overheard, and the inferences one could draw from it.
March pulled her hand out of my arm, and stopped short under one of those tall Saratoga shade-trees to dramatise her inference.
Let us see how far these several facts and inferences accord with the theory of descent with modification.
As this whole volume is one long argument, it may be convenient to the reader to have the leading facts and inferences briefly recapitulated.
For all inferences from experience suppose, as their foundation, that the future will resemble the past, and that similar powers will be conjoined with similar sensible qualities.
All inferences from experience, therefore, are effects of custom, not of reasoning.
And if moral ideas are apt, without extreme care, to fall into obscurity and confusion, the inferences are always much shorter in these disquisitions, and the intermediate steps, which lead to the conclusion, much fewer than in the sciences which treat of quantity and number.