Pronunciations (2)
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/pɹɪˈdɪk.tə/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- Received-Pronunciation
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/pɹɪˈdɪk.tɚ/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
Noun
Something that anticipates, predicts, or foretells.
- Examples
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The rainfall in April is a predictor for the number of mosquitoes in May.
The predictor in the traffic-light control circuit tries to figure out how fast to change the lights.
More examples (1)
“Homeownership,” says John H. Mollenkopf, executive director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York Graduate Center, “is the strongest predictor of being likely to turn out in local politics and being a bit more conservative and antitax in your general outlook.”
A predictor variable.
One who predicts.
Usage- Uncommon
- Examples
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More examples (4)
THE only individual in this great city who has had a really easy time is the weather predictor; his only task from day to day has been to announce rain and gales, and through it all he has readily ranked as a prophet with honor in […]
The “Annual Register” for 1809 contains an extract from a remarkable letter, dated Bath, April 2nd, in which the writer describes the effects of an extraordinary panic arising from a supposed prophecy of the end of the world. The account is headed “Bath Credulity,” and the writer states:—“[…] Some affirmed that Joanna Southcott was the predictor, others that it was a prophet now living at Midford, near this city, who was with Noah in the Ark, and has been travelling over various parts of the world ever since; but the greater part affixed the name of a female fortune-teller residing at Bath.[…],” etc.
The All Over Arkansas Man marks a prediction and calls for the next predictor. If a predictress will do as well, I will proceed to predict that within 10 years from this date there will not be a fly in the state of Arkansas.
And I look at, for example, on Weather Service, and thinking only in my lifetime, the evolution of how we have come on Weather Service, where we have been able to get down to that regional level, where people, if you talk to them in communities, I mean, maybe it is not such a bad idea that they think that their local weatherperson is the weather predictor.
So if a prophet isn’t primarily a future predictor, what is a prophet?
Noun
someone who makes predictions of the future (usually on the basis of special knowledge)
- Broader terms
information that supports a probabilistic estimate of future events
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the weekly bulletin contains several predictors of mutual fund performance
a computer for controlling antiaircraft fire that computes the position of an aircraft at the instant of a shell's arrival