something that is or may be deducted: She took deductions for a home office and other business expenses from her taxes.
3.
the act or process of deducing.
4.
something that is deduced: His astute deduction was worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
5.
Logic.
a.
a process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises presented, so that the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true.
b.
a conclusion reached by this process. Compare induction(def. 4).
[Origin: 1400–50; late ME deduccioun (< AF) < L déductiōn- (s. of déductiō) a leading away. See deduct, -ion]
a reduction in the gross amount on which a tax is calculated; reduces taxes by the percentage fixed for the taxpayer's income bracket [syn: tax write-off]
2.
an amount or percentage deducted
3.
something that is inferred (deduced or entailed or implied); "his resignation had political implications"
4.
reasoning from the general to the particular (or from cause to effect)
5.
the act of subtracting (removing a part from the whole); "he complained about the subtraction of money from their paychecks" [syn: subtraction] [ant: addition]
6.
the act of reducing the selling price of merchandise [syn: discount]
The process of reasoning from the general to the specific, in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises.
A conclusion reached by this process.
Our Living Language: The logical processes known as deduction and induction work in opposite ways. In deduction general principles are applied to specific instances. Thus, using a mathematical formula to figure the volume of air that can be contained in a gymnasium is applying deduction. Similarly, applying a law of physics to predict the outcome of an experiment is reasoning by deduction. By contrast, induction makes generalizations based on a number of specific instances. The observation of hundreds of examples in which a certain chemical kills plants might prompt the inductive conclusion that the chemical is toxic to all plants. Inductive generalizations are often revised as more examples are studied and more facts are known. If certain plants that have not been tested turn out to be unaffected by the chemical, the conclusion about the chemical's toxicity must be revised or restricted. In this way, an inductive generalization is much like a hypothesis.
De*duc"tion\, n. [L. deductio: cf. F. d['e]duction.]1. Act or process of deducing or inferring. The deduction of one language from another. --Johnson. This process, by which from two statements we deduce a third, is called deduction. --J. R. Seely. 2. Act of deducting or taking away; subtraction; as, the deduction of the subtrahend from the minuend. 3. That which is deduced or drawn from premises by a process of reasoning; an inference; a conclusion. Make fair deductions; see to what they mount. --Pope. 4. That which is deducted; the part taken away; abatement; as, a deduction from the yearly rent. Syn: See Induction.
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