simulation

American  

[sim-yuh-lay-shuhn] / ˌsɪm jəˈleɪ ʃən /

noun

• simulations
  plural

1. imitation or enactment, as of something anticipated or in testing.

2. the act or process of pretending; feigning.

3. an assumption or imitation of a particular appearance or form; counterfeit; sham.

4. Psychiatry. a conscious attempt to feign some mental or physical disorder to escape punishment or to gain a desired objective.

5. the representation of the behavior or characteristics of one system through the use of another system, especially a computer program designed for the purpose.

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simulation British  

/ ˌsɪmjʊˈleɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or an instance of simulating

2. the assumption of a false appearance or form

3. a representation of a problem, situation, etc, in mathematical terms, esp using a computer

4. maths statistics computing the construction of a mathematical model for some process, situation, etc, in order to estimate its characteristics or solve problems about it probabilistically in terms of the model

5. psychiatry the conscious process of feigning illness in order to gain some particular end; malingering

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonsimulation
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• simulations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of simulation

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English simulacion, from Latin simulātiōn- (stem of simulātiō ) “a pretense”; see simulate, -ion

Explanation

A simulation is a representation of something, not the real thing, like the simulation of life in New York City, seen in movies that were shot on Hollywood sound stages and on the streets of Toronto. A simulation is something that represents something else — it isn't the real thing. At times you might perform a simulation as practice for real life, such as a flight simulation that’s used to train pilots. The word can also be used, often dismissively, to describe something that is a fake, like a simulation of excitement or the simulation of a perfect diamond.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

simulation simulations

A Monte Carlo simulation, widely used in financial planning, calculates the probability that you’ll run out of money before you die.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

In one EY simulation, the AI takes on the role of a difficult client pushing back on a recommendation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

It was easier to imagine that this was a simulation, a game.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Freddo's skills were honed in a virtual environment, where a task can be performed in a computer simulation millions of times.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Early American History was my favorite, and this simulation was one of the more advanced of the program since potential Butterflies were scattered over a large area.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

In simulations, GPT-6 spontaneously carried out cyberattacks at rates significantly higher than those observed for the other two interfaces.

From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026

The trapped ion results represent another step toward quantum simulations that are too complex for even the world's most powerful conventional supercomputers.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

When they held a mock negotiation at the end of the summer, three of the four finalists were from the group that did the simulations, says Megan Ma, the lab’s executive director.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

"The underlying algorithms that we were using for most of these robotic simulations they hark back to the 1970s and 1980s, but those algorithms are not really brilliant fits for GPUs," Storey says.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Unfortunately the goddess sent another blessing, too—a gentle rain of gluten-free R.O.F.L. cupcake simulations, which Percy figured would either make cleaning up harder, or rebuilding easier.

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• reproduction