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abduction - 6 dictionary results

ab⋅duc⋅tion

1  [ab-duhk-shuhn]
Use abduction in a Sentence
–noun
1. act of abducting.
2. the state of being abducted.
3. Law. the illegal carrying or enticing away of a person, esp. by interfering with a relationship, as the taking of a child from its parent.
Origin:
1620–30; abduct + -ion

ab⋅duc⋅tion

2  [ab-duhk-shuhn]
–noun Logic.
a syllogism whose major premise is certain but whose minor premise is probable.
Origin:
1690–1700; < NL abductiōn- (s. of abductiō; trans. of Gk apagōg). See abduct, -ion
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ab·duct   (āb-dŭkt')   
tr.v.   ab·duct·ed, ab·duct·ing, ab·ducts
  1. To carry off by force; kidnap.
  2. Physiology To draw away from the midline of the body or from an adjacent part or limb.

[Latin abdūcere, abduct- : ab-, away; see ab-1 + dūcere, to lead; see deuk- in Indo-European roots.]
ab·duct·ee' n., ab·duc'tion 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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Abduction

Ab*duc"tion\, n. [L. abductio: cf. F. abduction.]

1. The act of abducing or abducting; a drawing apart; a carrying away. --Roget.

2. (Physiol.) The movement which separates a limb or other part from the axis, or middle line, of the body.

3. (Law) The wrongful, and usually the forcible, carrying off of a human being; as, the abduction of a child, the abduction of an heiress.

4. (Logic) A syllogism or form of argument in which the major is evident, but the minor is only probable.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Main Entry: ab·duc·tion
Pronunciation: ab-'d&k-sh&n, &b-
Function: noun
1 a : the action of abducting <abduction of a robbery victim> b : the tort or felony of abducting a person
2 : the unlawful carrying away of a wife or female child or ward for the purpose of marriage or sexual intercourse
NOTE: Sense 2 has its roots in common law. As statutorily defined, mainly in the nineteenth century, abduction is generally stated to include taking away or detention of a woman under a certain age, usually 16 or 18, with or without her consent or knowledge of her age.
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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abduction logic
The process of inference to the best explanation.
"Abduction" is sometimes used to mean just the generation of hypotheses to explain observations or conclusionsm, but the former definition is more common both in philosophy and computing.
The semantics and the implementation of abduction cannot be reduced to those for deduction, as explanation cannot be reduced to implication.
Applications include fault diagnosis, plan formation and default reasoning.
Negation as failure in logic programming can both be given an abductive interpretation and also can be used to implement abduction. The abductive semantics of negation as failure leads naturally to an argumentation-theoretic interpretation of default reasoning in general.
[Better explanation? Example?]
["Abductive Inference", John R. Josephson ].
(2000-12-07)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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