Heuristic

a.	1.	Serving to promote discovery or learning; - used especially of thories or paradigms which stimulate new ideas for discovering facts in experimental sciences.
	2.	Serving to stimulate people to learn and discover on their own, especially by encouraging experimental and trial-and-error methods for solving problems.
	3.	Pertaining to or based on trial-and-error and experimental methods of learning and evaluation.
	4.	(Computers) Based on the use of an efficient trial-and error method to search a space of possible solutions to a problem, or to find an acceptable approximate solution, when an exact algorithmic method is unavailable or too time-consuming.
n.	1.	A heuristic method; a specific heuristic procedure.
	2.	A theory or approach which serves to promote discovery or learning by encouraging experimentation.

Noun	1.	heuristic - a commonsense rule (or set of rules) intended to increase the probability of solving some problem Synonyms: heuristic program, heuristic rule
Adj.	1.	heuristic - of or relating to or using a general formulation that serves to guide investigation Antonyms: algorithmic - of or relating to or having the characteristics of an algorithm

1.	(programming)	heuristic - A rule of thumb, simplification, or educated guess that reduces or limits the search for solutions in domains that are difficult and poorly understood. Unlike algorithms, heuristics do not guarantee optimal, or even feasible, solutions and are often used with no theoretical guarantee.
2.	(algorithm)	heuristic - approximation algorithm.

analytic, cut-and-try, empirical, examinational, examinatorial, examining, experimental, explorational, explorative, exploratory, fact-finding, feeling, groping, hit-or-miss, indagative, inspectional, inspectorial, investigational, investigative, investigatory, pilot, probationary, probative, probatory, proving, provisional, tentative, test, testing, trial, trial-and-error, trying, verificatory, zetetic