Inherited fromMiddle Englishinduction, fromOld Frenchinduction, fromLatininductiō, fromindūcō(“I lead”). Bysurface analysis,induct +-ion orinduce +-tion.
induction (countable anduncountable,pluralinductions)
- An act ofinducting.
1612–1613,Nathan Field,John Fletcher,Philip Massinger, “The Honest Mans Fortune”, inComedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and forHumphrey Moseley […], published1647,→OCLC, Act II, scene i:I know not you; nor am I well pleased to make this time, as the affair now stands, theinduction of your acquaintance.
c.1597 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act III, scene i]:These promises are fair, the parties sure, / And ourinduction full of prosperous hope.
- Aformalceremony in which a person is appointed to anoffice or intomilitaryservice.
2006 February 24, Leslie Feinberg, “Civil rights leaders faced red-baiting, gay-baiting”, inWorkers World[1]:[Strom] Thurmond also condemned [Bayard] Rustin for having refusing[sic] militaryinduction as a conscientious objector.
- The process of showing a newcomer around a place where they will work or study.
- Near-synonym:orientation
- An act ofinducing.
2002, Gilbert S. Banker, Christopher T. Rhodes,Modern Pharmaceutics, 4th edition, Informa Health Care,→ISBN, page699:One of the first examples of the immunogenicity of recombinantly derived antibodies was with murine anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (OKT3) used in theinduction of immunosupression after organ transplantation.
- (physics)Generation of anelectriccurrent by avaryingmagneticfield.
- (logic)Derivation ofgeneralprinciples fromspecificinstances.
- Antonym:deduction
- Meronym:abstraction
1910, James George Frazer,Totemism and Exogamy, volume 1, page vii:For the most part they contented themselves with repeating a few familiar facts or adding a few fresh theories ; they did not attempt a wideinduction on the basis of a systematic collection and classification of the evidence.
- (mathematics) A method ofproof of atheorem by first proving it for a specific case (often aninteger; usually 0 or 1) and showing that, if it is true for one case then it must be true for the next.
- (theater) Use ofrumors to twist andcomplicate theplot of aplay or tonarrate in a way that does not have to state truth nor fact within the play.
- (embryology) Given a group ofcells that emits or displays a substance, the influence of this substance on thefate of a second group of cells.
- (mechanical engineering) The delivery ofair to thecylinders of aninternal combustionpiston engine.
- (medicine) The process ofinducing labour for thechildbirth process.
- (obsolete) Anintroduction.
a formal ceremony in which a person is inducted into an office or into military service
generation of an electric current by a varying magnetic field
the derivation of general principles from specific instances
a general proof of a theorem
the use of rumors to twist and complicate the plot
the development of a feature from part of a formerly homogenous field of cells
- (embryology)J.M.W. Slack (1991), “The concepts of experimental embryology”, inFrom Egg to Embryo, 2 edition, Cambridge University Press,→ISBN, page32
FromLatininductio.
induction f (pluralinductions)
- induction
