heuristic means that employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect; either not following or derived from any theory, or based on an advisedly oversimplified one. It carries an Arena rating of 1660, earned across 7 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, heuristic ranks #942 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,763 of 17,122 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #5,129 of 17,125 for Most Incisive Words, #6,072 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words.
heuristic is pronounced /hjuˈɹɪstɪk/.
Why “heuristic” is a great word
Employing a practical method for problem-solving that is not guaranteed to be perfect or optimal but is sufficient for reaching an immediate goal. From New Latin *heuristicus*, from Greek *heuriskein* ("to find, discover"), first recorded in English 1815–25. Unlike "algorithmic" (which demands a precise, step-by-step procedure guaranteed to produce a correct result) or "exhaustive" (which systematically considers all possibilities to ensure completeness), heuristic thinking embraces educated shortcuts—the chess master discarding ninety percent of possible moves based on intuition, the doctor's rapid diagnosis from a patient's gait, the hiker choosing a fork because the left path smells of water. It is the mind's warm and weathered shortcut across familiar terrain, alive with the quiet confidence of having been wrong before and still arriving close enough.
Etymology
Irregular formation from Ancient Greek εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “I find, discover”) (compare the proper Greek term εὑρετικός (heuretikós)).
adj
- That employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect; either not following or derived from any theory, or based on an advisedly oversimplified one.
- That provides a useful, but not optimal, solution to a problem. Such algorithms are typically employed either because the only known algorithms that provide optimal solutions use too much time or resources, or else because there is no known algorithm that provides an optimal solution.e.g.“If a heuristic algorithm works for most of the input data or its maximum percentage error is tolerable, we may prefer the heuristic algorithm to an optimum algorithm that requires a long time.”
- That reasons from the value of a method or principle that has been shown by experimental investigation to be a useful aid in learning, discovery and problem-solving.
noun
- A heuristic method.
- The art of applying heuristic methods.
- A heuristic algorithm or method.
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