induction

noun Date: 14th century 1. a. the act or process of inducting (as into office) b. an initial experience ; initiation c. the formality by which a civilian is inducted into military service 2. a. (1) inference of a generalized conclusion from particular instances — compare deduction 2a (2) a conclusion arrived at by induction b. mathematical demonstration of the validity of a law concerning all the positive integers by proving that it holds for the integer 1 and that if it holds for an arbitrarily chosen positive integer k, it must hold for the integer k + 1 — called also mathematical induction 3. a preface, prologue, or introductory scene especially of an early English play 4. a. the act of bringing forward or adducing (as facts or particulars) b. the act of causing or bringing on or about c. the process by which an electrical conductor becomes electrified when near a charged body, by which a magnetizable body becomes magnetized when in a magnetic field or in the magnetic flux set up by a magnetomotive force, or by which an electromotive force is produced in a circuit by varying the magnetic field linked with the circuit d. the inspiration of the fuel-air charge from the carburetor into the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine e. the process by which the fate of embryonic cells is determined (as by the action of adjacent cells) and morphogenetic differentiation brought about