nondeterministicadj.
/ˌnɒndᵻˌtəːmᵻˈnɪstɪk/, U.S. /ˌnɑndəˌtərməˈnɪstɪk/, /ˌnɑndiˌtərməˈnɪstɪk/ 1. That does not involve determinism.
ΚΠ
1919 Philos. Rev. 28 55 Such a system would be called ‘non-deterministic’ or, to use Mr. Russell's word, ‘capricious’.
1936 Canad. Jrnl. Econ. & Polit. Sci. 2 272 Physics since quantum theory is non-deterministic.
1960 Encounter 15 v. 42 A markedly non-deterministic interpretation of psycho-analysis.
1996 Philos. Q. 46 188 There are no known determinants of whether a patient with untreated syphilis will contract paresis;..the causal process from one condition to the other may be non-deterministic.
2. Mathematics and Computing. Of, relating to, or designating a mode of computation in which, at certain points, there is an unpredictable choice of ways to proceed.
ΚΠ
1957 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 43 989 It is of especial interest to be able to obtain a characterization of the class of purely nondeterministic processes in terms of the spectrum of the process.
1980 Information Sci. 22 45 The class..of sets of two-dimensional tapes accepted by nondeterministic two-dimensional finite automata..is not closed under row or column cyclic closure.
1997 Computer Music Jrnl. Summer 37/1 This set is called the set of NP-complete problems..because..they can be solved in polynomial time by nondeterministic algorithms.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1919