deduce

de·duce

Use deduce in a sentence

verb

To deduce is defined as to come up with an answer by logic or by putting pieces of information together.

An example of deduce is when police figure out who the killer is by looking at information they obtain.

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MLA Style

"deduce." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/deduce>.

APA Style

deduce. (n.d.). Retrieved December 19th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/deduce

deduce

transitive verb

-·duced′, -·duc′ing

to trace the course or derivation of
to infer by logical reasoning; reason out or conclude from known facts or general principles

Origin of deduce

Middle English deducen from Classical Latin deducere, to lead down, bring away from de-, down + ducere, to lead: see duct

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"deduce." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/deduce>.

APA Style

deduce. (n.d.). Retrieved December 19th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/deduce

deduce

transitive verb

de·duced, de·duc·ing, de·duc·es

To reach (a conclusion) by reasoning.
To infer from a general principle; reason deductively: deduced from the laws of physics that the new airplane would fly.
To trace the origin or derivation of.

Origin of deduce

Middle English deducen from Latin dēdūcere to lead away or down dē- de- dūcere to lead ; see deuk- in Indo-European roots.

Related Forms:

de·duc′i·ble
adjective

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"deduce." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/deduce>.

APA Style

deduce. (n.d.). Retrieved December 19th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/deduce

Verb

(third-person singular simple present deduces, present participle deducing, simple past and past participle deduced)

To reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic to given premises.

Usage notes

For example, from the premises "all good people believe in the tooth fairy" and "Mary does not believe in the tooth fairy", we deduce the conclusion "Mary is not a good person". This particular form of deduction is called a syllogism. Note that in this case we reach a false conclusion by correct deduction from a false premise.

Antonyms