Pronunciation: /æbˈdʌktɪv/
adjective relating to or involving abduction, a method of reasoning in which one chooses the most likely explanation from the facts available
A1 Doctors use abductive reasoning to make educated guesses about a patient's illness.
A2 In science, abductive reasoning is often used to form hypotheses based on observations.
B1 Detectives often rely on abductive reasoning to solve complex cases.
B2 The scientist used abductive reasoning to come up with a new theory that explained the phenomenon.
C1 Philosophers debate the merits of abductive reasoning in the context of scientific discovery.
C2 The novel approach to problem-solving involved a combination of deductive and abductive reasoning.
formal The scientist used abductive reasoning to form a hypothesis based on the available evidence.
informal She's really good at abductive reasoning, always figuring things out before anyone else.
slang I don't know how she does it, but she's like the queen of abductive thinking.
figurative His abductive approach to problem-solving was like connecting the dots in a complex puzzle.
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