online medical dictionary | definition of inductive

1. Leading or drawing; persuasive; tempting; usually followed by to. "A brutish vice, Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve." (Milton)

2. Tending to induce or cause. "They may be . . . Inductive of credibility." (Sir M. Hale)

3. Leading to inferences; proceeding by, derived from, or using, induction; as, inductive reasoning.

4. <physics> Operating by induction; as, an inductive electrical machine. Facilitating induction; susceptible of being acted upon by induction; as certain substances have a great inductive capacity.

<physics> Inductive embarrassment, the retardation in signaling on an electric wire, produced by lateral induction. Inductive philosophy or method. See Philosophical induction, under Induction. Inductive sciences, those sciences which admit of, and employ, the inductive method, as astronomy, botany, chemistry, etc.

Origin: LL. Inductivus: cf. F. Inductif. See Induce.

(01 Mar 1998)