adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a reliable report
▪ On Sunday there were reliable reports of a group of whales off the Devon coast.
an accurate/reliable estimate (=fairly exact)
▪ It’s hard to put an accurate estimate on the number of people affected.
reliable
▪ Some of the data isn’t very reliable.
reliable (=likely to give the result you want)
▪ We need a more reliable method of predicting earthquakes.
reliable/credible (=which people can trust or believe)
▪ Do you think their evidence is reliable?
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
always
▪ The figures used are not always reliable indicators.
▪ They were not always reliable and often blew up the wrong targets.
▪ Unfortunately, the information is not always reliable.
▪ Our imagination is not always reliable.
▪ Despite its sensitivity, it is not always reliable.
as
▪ Suffice to say, no one has proved as reliable a forecaster as Joseph.
▪ Making butter was nowhere near as reliable.
▪ We need to ensure that the power plant and drive train are as reliable as possible.
▪ This is, however, no reason to avoid making them as reliable as possible.
▪ This makes these techniques difficult to use as reliable absolute dating methods.
completely
▪ A useful but not completely reliable indicator of potency.
▪ He is an honest, warm human as well as an excellent, completely reliable guide.
▪ But whatever form intuition takes, it is completely reliable.
▪ Taken singly none is completely reliable.
▪ A few rules can be given, though these are not completely reliable.
▪ This process is not completely reliable, introducing further difficulty into the recognition procedure.
highly
▪ Its extremely low rating suggests that the answers given were open, honest and highly reliable.
▪ Verio supports its operations with highly reliable and scalable national infrastructure and systems including a facilities-based Tier One national network.
how
▪ But how reliable is demonstrative identification?
▪ She is pleasant enough but how reliable I can not say and I am not depending on her for the birth.
▪ Three technical issues have to be considered first: How reliable does the system have to be?
▪ How do we know how reliable it is?
▪ A flushed and jolly character raises his glass among friends and family - how real, how reliable is that evidence?
less
▪ The glow from a thousand points of light seems less reliable than that from the lightbulbs of a well-financed bureaucracy.
▪ Trend data on employment and economic activity rates for women are less reliable, particularly given their low unemployment registration rates.
▪ It's much smaller than its competitors in Bath or Cheltenham, and it's far less reliable than them.
▪ An expansionary monetary policy is even less reliable.
▪ It was rumoured that as the monarch's virility grew less reliable he developed a habit of taking substantial quantities of aphrodisiacs.
▪ If the latter were true, random sampling of the normal mucosa would be less reliable as a means of ascertaining risk.
▪ In this respect the task is bigger, less reliable in its outcome, and in need of much greater definition.
▪ Once it has been damaged, the Steam Tank becomes increasingly less reliable.
more
▪ These computers were smaller than the first-generation machines, were cheaper to run, and were much more reliable.
▪ We need better computer models and more reliable climate data before we take any drastic countermeasures. 3.
▪ The perceived value of the statement is that its standardisation makes comparisons between companies and industries more reliable.
▪ The attorney general's figures are considered more reliable because his office determines the actual cause of death.
▪ The weather improved and the pitch, if anything, afforded slightly more reliable bounce on the second day.
▪ Windows 95 users have a newer and more reliable program called DriveSpace.
▪ Friendly persuasion A more reliable test is whether a fruit comes away from the plant without much persuasion.
▪ The newer, more reliable tests which have been introduced since publication of the first edition are also described and depicted.
most
▪ The most reliable of these comparative data measure voting in national elections.
▪ He was the most reliable, in spite of that old dragon he married.
▪ You know what we need to guarantee the safest, most reliable means of air travel humanly, technologically possible?
▪ The most reliable way to press anything is always to dismantle it completely.
▪ In many offices the most reliable people with the longest track record in a company are secretaries.
▪ The overlay process has been most reliable here.
▪ The most reliable and accurate estimates can normally be obtained using one of the true cross-areal interpolation methods.
very
▪ Bovine in vitro fertilisation was developed in the 1990S, and is still not very reliable.
▪ The M14 was very reliable and durable, single shot or auto.
▪ Despite its peculiarities, the car was very reliable.
▪ They are not very reliable and it is a rare day when all eight can be persuaded to run!
▪ The practice is quite widespread, but no one has achieved any very reliable estimate of its scale, let alone a trend.
▪ The engine had to be very reliable with the smallest number of parts possible.
▪ Battery Test Many detectors have an integral battery test but this is not very reliable, to say the least.
▪ Incidentally I got that information on the third law from a very reliable source.
■ NOUN
data
▪ Having reliable data for the current year is, of course, a prerequisite of good budgets.
▪ They chose us to provide them with the most reliable data network available.
▪ Effective planning for mission in Britain as in many other countries has been hampered at every level by lack of reliable data.
▪ Diagrams can take perfectly reliable data and through over simplification deliberately or unintentionally mislead.
▪ Day attributes the changes to more detailed and reliable data collection, together with better statistical techniques.
▪ More reliable data for the metal workers, the most powerful sector, show only 20-25 percent unionization.
▪ However, wealth is perhaps even more difficult to measure than income and reliable data prove elusive.
▪ On the other hand, occasional sampling, while less time-consuming, will give less reliable data.
estimate
▪ Sampling theory showed that reliable estimates of population characteristics could be arrived at using appropriately constructed samples.
▪ Quite sophisticated equipment and trained manpower is required to make reliable estimates.
▪ The practice is quite widespread, but no one has achieved any very reliable estimate of its scale, let alone a trend.
▪ Second, how can we be sure that it provides for an accurate and reliable estimate of that population?
▪ Better designed studies with more complete reporting of data would enable more reliable estimates of efficacy of treatment.
evidence
▪ Nevertheless, the most reliable evidence strongly suggests that the children of the war are suffering from secondhand exposure to the toxin.
▪ He proposed that a prosecution should not be embarked upon or continued unless the prosecutors were satisfied there was reliable evidence.
guide
▪ The numbers could still be a reliable guide to a player's position even with all the playing formations these days.
▪ Actually, neither is a reliable guide.
▪ None the less, the earth's magnetic field is a much more reliable guide.
▪ In the history of science, beauty has proved itself a reliable guide to truth.
▪ For there, waiting on the platform, would be our ever reliable guide, philosopher and friend, Sam Davies.
▪ He is an honest, warm human as well as an excellent, completely reliable guide.
▪ That is why they are a more reliable guide to completeness.
▪ The only reliable guide to that is the demand at present.
indicator
▪ A useful but not completely reliable indicator of potency.
▪ The figures used are not always reliable indicators.
▪ Most agree that measures used in combination provide much more reliable indicators of performance.
▪ Pseudomelanosis coli is regarded as a more reliable indicator of chronic anthranoid laxative abuse of more than nine to 12 months.
▪ Cotinine in the urine is a reliable indicator that the subject has been exposed to passive smoking.
▪ It can be argued that these tests are a reliable indicator of performance when tested under controlled conditions.
▪ Matthew Lynn Number of employees provides a reliable indicator of a company's performance over the short term.
information
▪ My first task was trying to acquire some reliable information about the nomads.
▪ His starting price of 11-8 made it clear he was strongly fancied by somebody with reliable information.
▪ A: To get the most reliable information, consult a travel agent who has access to continually updated fare information.
▪ By providing reliable information on military activity, satellite surveillance could cut out the uncertainty which fuels arms spending.
▪ However it isn't easy to get reliable information on what to give, and when.
means
▪ New scientific techniques introduced among other things reliable means of dating the prehistoric past.
▪ And still no ship owned a reliable means for establishing her whereabouts.
▪ Chemiluminescence is a reliable means of estimating reactive oxygen species in biological media.
▪ You know what we need to guarantee the safest, most reliable means of air travel humanly, technologically possible?
▪ If we had no rights of participation in the subsequent investigation, we would have no reliable means of obtaining the information.
measure
▪ Reliability Any instrument used in language assessments needs to provide reliable measures.
▪ Weener etal. conclude that, although the overall score does provide a reliable measure, it is of questionable validity.
method
▪ One of the difficulties in the early stages of this work was to find any reasonably reliable method of measuring whisker strengths.
▪ Hence if knowledge requires an infallible or perfectly reliable method, it is impossible.
▪ If you're not pregnant, ask a doctor about reliable methods of contraception. 5.
▪ Freezing and canning can be reliable methods of preserving foods but the cook-chill method is inadequately regulated.
▪ If you're in this business, you go after a reasonably cheap, reliable method.
▪ Direct studies on cell function are rare due to lack of reliable methods to culture this epithelium.
▪ The only reliable method of preventing parasitic bronchitis is to immunise all young calves with lungworm vaccine.
▪ Psychology's theoretical inadequacies often lead it to replace theory with utilitarian generalizations from its most reliable methods.
result
▪ If you are looking for well-being, you might get more reliable results if you choose a life of radical selfishness.
▪ It is important that assessment methodologies which will provide valid and reliable results are developed at an early stage.
source
▪ The process continues until a solid body of successful generalizations has been established to serve as a reliable source of explanations.
▪ She will likely have young children at home and no reliable source of day care.
▪ Use them only in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions or advice from a reliable source.
▪ But what more reliable source of recovery do we have than our own body?
▪ It is therefore not apriori certain that literature is a reliable source of information about anything but its own language.
▪ But can I count as a reliable source my own childhood memories?
▪ Incidentally I got that information on the third law from a very reliable source.
▪ A reliable source had eluded him, although certain other prospects had yet to be properly investigated.
way
▪ The most reliable way to press anything is always to dismantle it completely.
▪ Is there a reliable way to measure the intelligence of the gut brain?
▪ There is no single reliable way of deciding by simple observations whether a subject is genuinely hypnotised.
▪ The root of materialism is probably a firm commitment to empirical scientific method as the only reliable way to discover truth.
▪ It is only good for learning weights, and weights are not always a reliable way to resolve conflicts.
▪ There is no fully reliable way to separate the compensation for these two components.
▪ To say however that this route supplies the only reliable way to knowledge is grossly to overstep its boundaries.
▪ Thus the search for a reliable way to detect or even predict ovarian cancer goes on.
witness
▪ Certainly women sat spinning upon them as we know from the description by Adam Sedgwick, a reliable witness.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ reliable statistics
▪ Do you have a reliable map of the area?
▪ Don't worry, my car is reliable.
▪ Eating sensibly and taking regular exercise is a fairly reliable method of losing weight.
▪ In Africa, cellular phones are often the only reliable way of communicating.
▪ In many offices the most reliable people with the longest service are the secretaries.
▪ In those days there was no reliable system of transportation between Alaska and the rest of the US.
▪ It's strange Ben isn't here. He's usually so reliable.
▪ My car's quite old, but it's still pretty reliable.
▪ The system is new, but so far it seems to be reliable.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And still no ship owned a reliable means for establishing her whereabouts.
▪ Another useful and reliable intuition is that of recurrence of semantic contrast, or semantic proportion.
▪ But the single most reliable route to growth is probably to sell off everything but the core business.
▪ I am not aware of any reliable testing done on herbal products.
▪ Is there a reliable way to measure the intelligence of the gut brain?