predictive

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praedictivus, from praedico. Equivalent to predict + -ive.

adj

1. Useful in predicting.
   The amount of rain in April is predictive of the number of mosquitoes in May.
2. (computing) Describing a predictor.
3. (medicine) Expressing the expected accuracy of a statistical measure or of a diagnostic test.

noun

1. (grammar) A conditional statement that includes a prediction in the dependent clause (e.g. "if it rains, the game will be cancelled", "give her an inch and she'll take a mile.").
   Also, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, predictive conditionals show a high degree of integration thanks to the patterns of verb forms which are characteristic for predictives and which normally do not mix freely with other, non-predictive forms. 1999, Barbara Dancygier, Conditionals and Prediction: Time, Knowledge and Causation in Conditional Constructions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 2004, page 76
   In contrast, English-speaking children appropriately differentiate if future predictives from when future predictives, a distinction relevant for English but not for, say, German. 2008, Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole, Routes to Language: Studies in Honor of Melissa Bowerman, page xiv
2. (statistics) Simulated data generated from a statistical model, based on the estimates for the real data.
   However, the posterior predictives combine two sources of information: what we might term the structural effect of WIC participation as well as an unobserved correlation between the errors of the participation and outcome equations. 2008, Siddhartha Chib, William Griffiths, Bayesian Econometrics, page 160
   Alternatively, we can use prior predictives to help define prior distributions. 2018, Simon Farrell, Stephan Lewandowsky, Computational Modeling of Cognition and Behavior, page 308