[in.duc.tion] n (14c) 1 a: the act or process of inducting (as into office) b: an initial experience: initiation c: the formality by which a civilian is inducted into military service
2. a (1): inference of a generalized conclusion from particular instances--compare deduction 2a (2): a conclusion arrived at by induction b: mathematical demonstration of the validity of a law concerning all the positive integers by proving that it holds for the integer 1 and that if it holds for all the integers preceding a given integer it must hold for the next following integer
3: a preface, prologue, or introductory scene esp. of an early English play
4. a: the act of bringing forward or adducing (as facts or particulars) b: the act of causing or bringing on or about c: the process by which an electrical conductor becomes electrified when near a charged body, by which a magnetizable body becomes magnetized when in a magnetic field or in the magnetic flux set up by a magnetomotive force, or by which an electromotive force is produced in a circuit by varying the magnetic field linked with the circuit d: the inspiration of the fuel-air charge from the carburetor into the combustion chamber of an internal-combustion engine e: the sum of the processes by which the fate of embryonic cells is determined and morphogenetic differentiation brought about