Retroduction
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A leading or bringing back. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"On the subject of Planting, Mr. M. is of opinion that 'the offering premiums for the general increase of wood is going retrograde, or constributing towards a retroduction of uncultivated nature; instead of which, this country ought to be in a state of garden-like cultivation."
- 2 Synonym of abduction. countable, uncountable
"Whereas retroduction involves one step, and deduction involves two, induction, as the third stage, involves three: classification, probationary argument, and appraisal of the probations."
- 3 A system of research or problem-solving based on abduction; A dialectic method of working from existing information to achieve a theory or from a desired outcome to achieve a design. broadly, countable, uncountable
"This is the big advantage of retroduction; it is difficult the first time it is attempted, but with a little experience, you can select the designs more and more quickly. Most good designers perform retroduction without realizing it."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"On the subject of Planting, Mr. M. is of opinion that 'the offering premiums for the general increase of wood is going retrograde, or constributing towards a retroduction of uncultivated nature; instead of which, this country ought to be in a state of garden-like cultivation."
Etymology
From Latin retroducere, retroductum (“to lead or bring back”), from retro (“backward”) + ducere (“to lead”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.