— heuristically , adv.
/hyoo ris"tik/ or, often, /yoo-/ , adj.
1. serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.
2. encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error: a heuristic teaching method.
3. of, pertaining to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.
4. Computers , Math. pertaining to a trial-and-error method of problem solving used when an algorithmic approach is impractical.
n.
5. a heuristic method of argument.
6. the study of heuristic procedure.
[ 1815-25; heuristicus, equiv. to Gk heur ( ískein ) to find out, discover + L -isticus -ISTIC ]