deterministic

[ dih-tur-muh-nis-tik ]

adjective

1. following or relating to the philosophical doctrine of determinism, which holds that all facts and events are determined by external causes and follow natural laws, and that there is no free will:

   Rather than hewing to a deterministic model that robs the individual of agency, she believes art emerges from the interplay among individuals within a given sociocultural system.

2. Statistics. of or relating to a process or model in which the output is determined solely by the input and initial conditions, thereby always returning the same results ( stochastic ):

   The algorithms are simple and deterministic, so the results are predictable and reproducible.

   In contrast, this analysis of nanoscale phenomena depends on the elements of chance rather than the deterministic classical equations of motion.

Other Words From

• de·ter·min·is·ti·cal·ly adverb
• non·de·ter·min·is·tic adjective
• sem·i·de·ter·min·is·tic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of deterministic¹

determin(e) + -ist + -ic

Example Sentences

Due to the nature of quantum interactions, such collisions are not strictly deterministic.

From Quanta Magazine

For starters, marketers seldom, if ever, have the full benefit of verifiable user contact and granular, deterministic behavior data about prospective customers.

From Digiday

Experimenters have since used Bell’s theorem to rule out the possibility that beneath all the apparent quantum craziness — the randomness and the spooky action at a distance — is a hidden deterministic reality that obeys the laws of relativity.

From Quanta Magazine

After completing this deterministic part of their approach, Conlon and Ferber moved on to the random part.

From Quanta Magazine

It also has practical applications, because — what it’s doing, in a sort of a deterministic way, specifies the potential of that cell, or if it’s a cancer cell.

From Freakonomics

Economic power to build overwhelming military might is the standard deterministic answer.

From The Daily Beast

The deterministic narrative just doesn't work; each state is different, and the picture is muddled.

From The Daily Beast

"We explain that being at-risk isn't deterministic," says Barbara Walsh, one of McGlashan's colleague's the Yale clinic.

From The Daily Beast

The difficulty is not to arrive at a deterministic theory of life for most men.

From Project Gutenberg

Science, right or wrong, is deterministic; everywhere it penetrates it introduces determinism.

From Project Gutenberg

But if this be true, no information is conveyed about the universe in stating that it is deterministic.

From Project Gutenberg

Bêche de mer was purely fortuitous, but it was fortuitous in the deterministic way.

From Project Gutenberg

Even writings ostensibly deterministic in aim have not been free from blame in their use of the word.

From Project Gutenberg