INFERENCE

Pronunciation (US):

• INFERENCE (noun)
  The noun INFERENCE has 1 sense:

1. 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

  Familiarity information: INFERENCE used as a noun is very rare.

• INFERENCE (noun)

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

illation; inference

Hypernyms ("inference" is a kind of...):

abstract thought; logical thinking; reasoning (thinking that is coherent and logical)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inference"):

analogy (an inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others)

corollary ((logic) an inference that follows directly from the proof of another proposition)

derivation (a line of reasoning that shows how a conclusion follows logically from accepted propositions)

deduction; entailment; implication (something that is inferred (deduced or entailed or implied))

extrapolation (an inference about the future (or about some hypothetical situation) based on known facts and observations)

presumption ((law) an inference of the truth of a fact from other facts proved or admitted or judicially noticed)