Standard Lemma guide

underdetermine

verb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

verb

Meaning 1

Particularly in the theory of scientific explanation, to provide too few constraints to specify a unique solution.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1967 A. H. Armstrong (ed) The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy He recognised that, in constructing his laws, the physicist must go beyond the ‘facts’ which inevitably underdetermine his theories. Boltzmann rightly accused both the idealists and the inductivists of having ignored this basic limitation on the certainty of all scientific hypotheses.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From under- + determine.