"underdetermine" meaning in English

See underdetermine in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: underdetermines [present, singular, third-person], underdetermining [participle, present], underdetermined [participle, past], underdetermined [past]
Etymology: under- + determine Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|under|determine}} under- + determine Head templates: {{en-verb}} underdetermine (third-person singular simple present underdetermines, present participle underdetermining, simple past and past participle underdetermined)
  1. Particularly in the theory of scientific explanation, to provide too few constraints to specify a unique solution. Related terms: underdetermination
    Sense id: en-underdetermine-en-verb-jQ3wicBj Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with under-

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for underdetermine meaning in English (2.4kB)

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "overdetermine"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "under",
        "3": "determine"
      },
      "expansion": "under- + determine",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "under- + determine",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "underdetermines",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "underdetermining",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "underdetermined",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "underdetermined",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "underdetermine (third-person singular simple present underdetermines, present participle underdetermining, simple past and past participle underdetermined)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with under-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1967 A. H. Armstrong (ed) The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy\nHe recognised that, in constructing his laws, the physicist must go beyond the ‘facts’ which inevitably underdetermine his theories. Boltzmann rightly accused both the idealists and the inductivists of having ignored this basic limitation on the certainty of all scientific hypotheses."
        },
        {
          "ref": "Wikipedia Because arguments involving underdetermination involve both a claim about what the evidence is and that such evidence underdetermines a conclusion, it is often useful to separate these two claims within the underdetermination argument as follows",
          "text": "1: All the available evidence of a certain type underdetermines which of several rival conclusions is correct.\n2: Only evidence of that type is relevant to believing one of these conclusions.\n3: Therefore, there is no evidence for believing one among the rival conclusions.\nThe first premise makes the claim that a theory is underdetermined. The second says that rational decision (i.e. using available evidence) depends upon insufficient evidence."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Particularly in the theory of scientific explanation, to provide too few constraints to specify a unique solution."
      ],
      "id": "en-underdetermine-en-verb-jQ3wicBj",
      "links": [
        [
          "constraint",
          "constraint"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "underdetermination"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "underdetermine"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "overdetermine"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "under",
        "3": "determine"
      },
      "expansion": "under- + determine",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "under- + determine",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "underdetermines",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "underdetermining",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "underdetermined",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "underdetermined",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "underdetermine (third-person singular simple present underdetermines, present participle underdetermining, simple past and past participle underdetermined)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "underdetermination"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English terms prefixed with under-",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1967 A. H. Armstrong (ed) The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy\nHe recognised that, in constructing his laws, the physicist must go beyond the ‘facts’ which inevitably underdetermine his theories. Boltzmann rightly accused both the idealists and the inductivists of having ignored this basic limitation on the certainty of all scientific hypotheses."
        },
        {
          "ref": "Wikipedia Because arguments involving underdetermination involve both a claim about what the evidence is and that such evidence underdetermines a conclusion, it is often useful to separate these two claims within the underdetermination argument as follows",
          "text": "1: All the available evidence of a certain type underdetermines which of several rival conclusions is correct.\n2: Only evidence of that type is relevant to believing one of these conclusions.\n3: Therefore, there is no evidence for believing one among the rival conclusions.\nThe first premise makes the claim that a theory is underdetermined. The second says that rational decision (i.e. using available evidence) depends upon insufficient evidence."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Particularly in the theory of scientific explanation, to provide too few constraints to specify a unique solution."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "constraint",
          "constraint"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "underdetermine"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-04 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (e9e0a99 and db5a844). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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