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a priori - 4 dictionary results

a pri⋅o⋅ri

  [ey prahy-awr-ahy, -ohr-ahy, ey pree-awr-ee, -ohr-ee, ah pree-awr-ee, -ohr-ee]
Use a priori in a Sentence
–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  [ey-prahy-awr-i-tee, -or-] , noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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a pri·o·ri   (ä' prē-ôr'ē, -ōr'ē, ā' prī-ôr'ī, -ōr'ī')   
adj.  
  1. 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.
  3. 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.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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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).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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