possibilisticadj.
/ˌpɒsᵻbᵻˈlɪstɪk/, U.S. /ˈˌpɑsəbəˈlɪstɪk/ Of or relating to possibilism or considerations of possibility.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [adjective] > doctrines or theories > of cultural development
age and area1915
unilineal1957
possibilistic1962
1962 Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. 49 236 Their outlook tended to be more practical and ‘possibilistic’ than that of some middle-class Progressives who allowed their reform aspirations to soar to Utopian heights.
1965 H. Sprout & M. Sprout Ecol. Perspective v. 83 A possibilistic analysis directs attention to those factors of the milieu that may affect the operational result.
1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia III. 912/3 Contemporary environmentalists recognize that physical surroundings are only part of a total environment that includes social and economic factors... Their approach is probabilistic, rather than deterministic or possibilistic.
2005 Omega (Nexis) Feb. The possibilistic regression is formulated from a position of obtaining the smallest interval system, including all the selected data, so it can provide more information on classification.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1962