probabilistic
Americanadjective
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Statistics. of or relating to probability.
probabilistic forecasting.
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of or relating to probabilism.
Etymology
Origin of probabilistic
1650–60; probabil(ism) or probabil(ity) + -istic; compare French probabiliste believer in probabilism
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But lowering the bar for algorithmic alerts based on probabilistic estimates effectively expands the number of people subjected to police attention.
From Salon • May 12, 2026
But ultimately, their output is probabilistic, and if something is right 99.999% of the time, that also means it’s wrong 0.001% of the time.
From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026
Further, these applications must be wholly reliable, which a probabilistic system like AI will always struggle to be.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026
We use a probabilistic approach to sampling and modeling.
From Salon • Oct. 1, 2024
Many mathematical problems are so intractable, and experiments involving them so expensive, that this kind of probabilistic simulation is the only alternative to giving up on them.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
