inference
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
the act of using clues or facts to figure something out.
the cognitive process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true.
Simple“The detective used inference to solve the case, looking at the muddy footprints and the broken window.”
In context“The researcher relied on statistical inference to determine whether the observed patterns in the sample were representative of the wider population.”
UsageOften used with the verb 'draw' or 'make'.
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
a guess or conclusion you make based on the information you have.
a specific proposition or conclusion reached through the process of inferring.
Simple“Is it a fair inference to say that he was unhappy, given how quickly he left the party?”
In context“The historian's inference that the document was a forgery was later confirmed by chemical analysis of the ink and parchment.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
the step where an AI uses what it has learned to make a decision or a prediction about new information.
the phase in which a trained machine learning model applies its learned parameters to new input data to produce an output.
Simple“The app performs inference locally on your phone to identify the plants in your photos.”
In context“Optimising the model for edge devices significantly reduced the latency during real-time inference, allowing for instantaneous object detection.”
UsageCommonly contrasted with the 'training' phase of a model.
SynonymsAntonyms
Usage causal inference · draw inference · make inference
“The inference was that it would take rather more to become a proper team.”
From Latin inferentia. Morphologically infer + -ence.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.