heuristic

English

WOTD – 24 May 2009    

Wikipedia

Etymology

Irregular formation from Ancient Greek εὑρίσκω (euriskō, “I find, discover”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hjuˈɹɪstɪk/, /hjʊˈɹɪstɪk/, X-SAMPA: /hju"rIstIk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: heu‧ris‧tic

Adjective

heuristic (comparative more heuristic, superlative most heuristic)

1. Relating to general strategies or methods for solving problems.
2. (computing, of a method or algorithm) that solves a problem more quickly but is not certain to arrive at an optimal solution.
   • 2002, Te Chiang Hu, Man-tak Shing, Combinatorial Algorithms^[1]:

     If a heuristic algorithm works for most of the input data or its maximum percentage error is tolerable, we may prefer the heuristic algorithm to an optimum algorithm that requires a long time.

Derived terms

• heuristically
• heuristical

Translations

relating to general strategies or methods for solving problems

• Catalan: heurístic (ca)
• Czech: heuristický (cs) m
• Danish: heuristisk (da)
• Dutch: heuristisch (nl), heuristische (nl)
• Esperanto: heŭristika (eo), problemsolvila (eo)
• Finnish: heuristinen (fi)
• French: euristique (fr)
• German: heuristisch (de)

• Hungarian: heurisztikus (hu)
• Italian: euristico (it)
• Polish: heurystyczny (pl) m
• Portuguese: heurístico (pt)
• Romanian: euristic (ro)
• Russian: эвристический (ru) (evristíčeskij)
• Spanish: heurístico (es)
• Swedish: heuristisk (sv)

in computing, that is not certain to arrive at an optimal solution

• Portuguese: heurístico (pt)

Noun

heuristic (plural heuristics)

1. A heuristic method.
2. The art of applying heuristic methods.

Translations

heuristic method, heuristics

• Catalan: heurística (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 啟發法 (cmn), 启发法 (cmn) (qǐfāfǎ)

• Czech: heuristika (cs) f
• Danish: heuristik (da)
• Dutch: heuristiek (nl) f
• Esperanto: heŭristiko (eo), problemsolvilo (eo)
• Estonian: heuristika (et)
• Finnish: heuristiikka (fi)
• French: heuristique (fr) f
• German: Heuristik (de) f
• Greek: εφευρίσκω (el) (efeurisko)
• Hebrew: יורסיטיקה (he)

• Hungarian: heurisztika (hu)
• Italian: euristica (it) f
• Japanese: ヒューリスティックス (ja) (hyūrisutikkusu)
• Khmer: អធិគតវិជ្ជា (km) (ak thi got vij jea)
• Lithuanian: euristika (lt)
• Polish: heurystyka (pl) f
• Portuguese: heurística (pt) f
• Russian: эвристика (ru) (evrístika) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: хеуристика (sh) f

  Roman: heuristika (sh) f

• Slovak: heuristika (sk) f
• Spanish: heurística (es) f