Ergodic

//ɜɹˈɡɑdɪk// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or relating to certain systems that, given enough time, will eventually return to a previously experienced state.

    "“The real world is not ergodic,” he says. “If I jump out of the window, that's it–it's not, like, a mistake I will learn from.”"

  2. 2
    Of or relating to a process in which every sequence or sample of sufficient size is equally representative of the whole.
  3. 3
    Of or relating to a literary work that requires nontrivial effort on the reader's part to traverse.

    "Therefore this chapter moves into two directions, cybertextually expanding (and reorganizing) the field of architextuality, and specifying the ergodic variety within it."

Adjective
  1. 1
    positive recurrent aperiodic state of stochastic systems; tending in probability to a limiting form that is independent of the initial conditions wordnet

Synonyms

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Example

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"“The real world is not ergodic,” he says. “If I jump out of the window, that's it–it's not, like, a mistake I will learn from.”"

Etymology

International Scientific Vocabulary ergo- + -ode (+ -ic). The etymological origin is disputed: ἔργον (érgon) + ὁδός (hodós, “way”) versus ἔργον (érgon) + εἶδος (eîdos, “image”).

Related phrases

ergodic hypothesisergodic theory

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.