[in.fer.ence] n (1594) 1: the act or process of inferring: as a: the act of passing from one proposition, statement, or judgment considered as true to another whose truth is believed to follow from that of the former b: the act of passing from statistical sample data to generalizations (as of the value of population parameters) usu. with calculated degrees of certainty
2: something that is inferred; esp: a proposition arrived at by inference
3: the premises and conclusion of a process of inferring