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predictor

UK/pɹɪˈdɪk.tə/US/pɹɪˈdɪk.tɚ/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,530 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: predictors

A predictor is something that gives a good sign of what is to come. A strong predictor.

It shows a pattern rather than a cause, which is the mistake everybody makes with the word. The best predictor of future behaviour is usually past behaviour, which is dull and reliable.

Definitions of predictor

  1. 1nounpredictorSomething that gives a good sign of what is to come.B2+

    “Attendance turned out to be the best predictor of the result.”

predictor is a sign.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *deyḱ-

  2. Latin

    praedicō — to mention beforehand

  3. English

    predict

  4. English, today

    predictor

Built from

  • prae- · Latin — before
  • dīcō · Latin — to say

From predict + -or. predict Early 17th century, from Latin praedicō (“to mention beforehand”) (perfect passive participle praedictus), from prae- (“before”) + dīcō (“to say”). Equivalent to Germanic forespeak, foretell, and foresay.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

predictor in the wild

  • The predictor could aim a gun at an aircraft based on simple inputs like the observed speed and the angle to the target.

    Kerrison Predictor

  • In computer architecture, a branch predictor is a digital circuit that tries to guess which way a branch will go before this is known definitively.

    Branch predictor

  • The purpose of the branch predictor is to improve the flow in the instruction pipeline.

    Branch predictor

  • MPEG-4 ALS combines a short-term predictor and a long term predictor.

    Audio Lossless Coding

  • The long term predictor is modeled by 5 long-term weighted residues, each with its own lag (delay).

    Audio Lossless Coding

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the dīcō family

indicateaddict

predictor — used about once every 54,060 pages · #14,530 · point at the bar for the others

  • prediction