trial and error

American  

noun

1. experimentation or investigation in which various methods or means are tried and faulty ones eliminated in order to find the correct solution or to achieve the desired result or effect.

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trial and error British  

noun

1. a method of discovery, solving problems, etc, based on practical experiment and experience rather than on theory

   he learned to cook by trial and error

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trial and error Cultural  

1. To “proceed by trial and error” is to experiment, rejecting what does not work and adopting what does.

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trial and error Idioms  

1. An attempt to accomplish something by trying various means until the correct one is found. for example, The only way to solve this problem is by trial and error. The error here alludes to the failed means or attempts, which are discarded until the right way is found. [c. 1800]

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Other Word Forms

• trial-and-error adjective

Etymology

Origin of trial and error

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

Meanwhile, a coup may be on the way in China's island province of Hainan, where years of trial and error are bearing fruit.

From BBC

Nearly one-third of patients do not improve after trying their first antidepressant, often leading to months of trial and error.

From Science Daily

As in “The Martian,” the story is built around trial and error and the scientific method.

From Los Angeles Times

Developing new rockets involves trial and error—and sometimes, explosions.

From The Wall Street Journal

They geeked out about continual learning, where AI gets smarter as it absorbs new information, and reinforcement learning, or “RL,” a technique in which the models learn through trial and error.

From The Wall Street Journal