trial-and-error

Thân thiện

The scientist uses a trial-and-error method to solve the puzzle.

Definition

Adjective: - Involving or based on a method of trying different possibilities until a successful result is achieved: Describes a process of solving problems, learning, or making discoveries through repeated experimentation, observation of outcomes, and adjustment, rather than through theoretical calculation or prior knowledge.

Usage

This adjective describes a practical, experimental approach. It is typically used before a noun (attributive position) to modify words like method, process, procedure, approach, or learning. - The team used a trial-and-error method to fix the old engine. - Language acquisition in infants involves a significant amount of trial-and-error learning. - We found the correct settings through trial-and-error experimentation.

Examples

Advanced Usage

• Conceptual Extension: The term can be applied metaphorically to describe any iterative process of adjustment and improvement, not just literal scientific experiments.
  • Finding the right work-life balance is often a trial-and-error journey.
• In Formal Contexts: While describing an empirical method, it can be used in academic writing, particularly in fields like psychology, education, engineering, and biology.
  • The study examined trial-and-error problem-solving strategies in primates.

Variants and Related Words

• Trial (noun): A test or experiment to assess quality, value, or performance. Can be part of the compound process.
  • The new drug is undergoing clinical trials.
• Error (noun): A mistake. The component that the process seeks to identify and reduce.
  • The program crashed due to a coding error.

Synonyms

• Empirical: Based on observation or experience rather than theory.
• Experimental: Involving or based on experiment.
• Heuristic: Enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves; often involves trial and error.
• Hit-or-miss: Dependent on chance; haphazard. (This synonym emphasizes the unpredictability, whereas "trial-and-error" implies a systematic, though experimental, approach.)

Related Phrases and Idioms

• By trial and error: This is the adverbial phrase form of the adjective.
  • He learned to play the guitar by trial and error.
• Learn from one's mistakes: An idiomatic expression capturing the core idea of the trial-and-error process.
  • The startup succeeded because the founders knew how to learn from their mistakes.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. relating to solving problems by experience rather than theory
   • they adopted a trial-and-error procedure
2. trying out various means or theories until error is satisfactorily reduced or eliminated
   • he argued that all learning is a trial-and-error process that resembles biological evolution