deduction

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of deducting; subtraction.
2. n. An amount that is or may be deducted: tax deductions.
3. n. The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.
4. n. Logic The process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises; inference by reasoning from the general to the specific.
5. n. Logic A conclusion reached by this process.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A drawing or tracing out and setting forth.
2. n. The act of deriving; derivation.
3. n. In logic, derivation as a result from a known principle; necessary inference; also, the result itself, as so concluded. As a term of logic, it is a translation of Aristotle's ἀπαγωγή (translated deductio by Boëthius), and properly signifies an illative descent from a general principle to the result of that principle in a special case; it is specially used by Aristotle when there is a doubt whether the case truly comes under the principle. By the older logicians it is little used, and not with any exact signification. In modern times it has been chiefly employed by those who hold that all reasoning is either a descent from generals to particulars (deduction) or an ascent from particulars to generals (induction). See deductive reasoning, under deductive.
4. n. The act of deducting or taking away; subtraction; abatement: as, the deduction of the subtrahend from the minuend; prompt payment will insure a large deduction.
5. n. A payment; a statement of payments.

Wiktionary

1. n. That which is deducted; that which is subtracted or removed
2. n. A sum that can be removed from tax calculations; something that is written off
3. n. A conclusion; that which is deduced, concluded or figured out
4. n. The ability or skill to deduce or figure out; the power of reason
5. n. logic A process of reasoning that moves from the general to the specific, in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises presented, so that the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true.
6. n. A conclusion reached by this process

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Act or process of deducing or inferring.
2. n. Act of deducting or taking away; subtraction.
3. n. That which is deduced or drawn from premises by a process of reasoning; an inference; a conclusion.
4. n. That which is or may be deducted; the part taken away; abatement.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a reduction in the gross amount on which a tax is calculated; reduces taxes by the percentage fixed for the taxpayer's income bracket
2. n. the act of subtracting (removing a part from the whole)
3. n. an amount or percentage deducted
4. n. something that is inferred (deduced or entailed or implied)
5. n. reasoning from the general to the particular (or from cause to effect)
6. n. the act of reducing the selling price of merchandise