# deduction

/dɪˈdəkʃən/ (US) · /dɪdˈʌkʃən/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/deduction
Updated: 2026-08-08

## Senses

### 1. money taken away

noun · CEFR B2

an amount of money that is taken away from a total, such as taxes taken from your pay.

For teachers: the subtraction of an amount from a gross total; frequently used in taxation and payroll contexts to describe non-taxable expenses or mandatory withholdings.

- After the tax deduction, my take-home pay was lower than I expected.
- The accountant identified several legitimate business deductions that significantly reduced the company's overall tax liability for the fiscal year.

### 2. logical reasoning

noun · CEFR B2

the process of reaching a decision or answer by thinking about the facts you know.

For teachers: the logical process of reaching a specific conclusion from general premises or known facts; the conclusion must be true if the premises are true.

- Through a process of deduction, the detective identified the thief.
- The scientist used logical deduction to predict the outcome of the experiment based on established physical laws.

### 3. a conclusion reached

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic

the specific conclusion or answer you find after thinking about the facts.

For teachers: the specific conclusion arrived at through the process of deductive reasoning.

- His deduction that the water was poisoned turned out to be correct.
- The researcher's primary deduction was that the two variables were linked by a third, previously unobserved factor.

## Examples

- The tax deduction lowered his final bill.
- She claimed a deduction for her home office expenses on the annual return.
- The detective relied on careful deduction rather than guesswork to identify the suspect from the scattered clues.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.