Satisfice

//ˈsætɪsfaɪs//

"Satisfice" in a Sentence (2 examples)

Evidently, organisms adapt well enough to ‘satisfice’; they do not, in general, ‘optimize’.

[T]here are two contrasting types of decision-making mentalities, maximizing and satisficing. If you're choosing a marriage partner, you probably want to maximize. You want to find the very best person you are totally in love with. […] But politics is not like that. Politics is a prosaic activity most of the time. You probably want to satisfice, pick the person who's good enough, who seems reasonably responsible.

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