a priori - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

a pri·o·ri

Audio Help [ey prahy-awr-ahy, -ohr-ahy, ey pree-awr-ee, -ohr-ee, ah pree-awr-ee, -ohr-ee] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	from a general law to a particular instance; valid independently of observation. Compare a posteriori (def. 1).

2.	existing in the mind prior to and independent of experience, as a faculty or character trait. Compare a posteriori (def. 2).

3.	not based on prior study or examination; nonanalytic: an a priori judgment.

[Origin: 1645–55; < L: lit., from the one before. See a-⁴, prior

]

—Related forms

a·pri·or·i·ty

Audio Help [ey-prahy-awr-i-tee, -or-] Pronunciation Key, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
a priori

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

a pri·o·ri Audio Help (ä' prē-ôr'ē, -ōr'ē, ā' prī-ôr'ī, -ōr'ī') Pronunciation Key
adj.

Proceeding from a known or assumed cause to a necessarily related effect; deductive.
1. Derived by or designating the process of reasoning without reference to particular facts or experience.
2. Knowable without appeal to particular experience.
Made before or without examination; not supported by factual study.

[Medieval Latin ā priōrī : Latin ā, from + Latin priōrī, ablative of prior, former.]

a' pri·o'ri adv., a' pri·or'i·ty (-ôr'ĭ-tē, -ŏr'-) n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
a priori

1710, "from cause to effect" (a logical term, in ref. to reasoning), from L., lit. "from what comes first," from priori, abl. of prior "first" (see prior (adj.)). Used loosely for "in accordance with previous knowledge" (1834).

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

a priori
adjective
1.	involving deductive reasoning from a general principle to a necessary effect; not supported by fact; "an a priori judgment" [ant: a posteriori]
2.	based on hypothesis or theory rather than experiment
adverb
1.	derived by logic, without observed facts [ant: a posteriori]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

A priori

A` pri*o"ri\ [L. a (ab) + prior former.]

1. (Logic) Characterizing that kind of reasoning which deduces consequences from definitions formed, or principles assumed, or which infers effects from causes previously known; deductive or deductively. The reverse of a posteriori.

3. (Philos.) Applied to knowledge and conceptions assumed, or presupposed, as prior to experience, in order to make experience rational or possible.

A priori, that is, form these necessities of the mind or forms of thinking, which, though first revealed to us by experience, must yet have pre["e]xisted in order to make experience possible. --Coleridge.

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