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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To lead or move, as to a course of action, by influence or persuasion. See Synonyms at persuade.
  2. v. To bring about or stimulate the occurrence of; cause: a drug used to induce labor.
  3. v. To infer by inductive reasoning.
  4. v. Physics To produce (an electric current or a magnetic charge) by induction.
  5. v. Physics To produce (radioactivity, for example) artificially by bombardment of a substance with neutrons, gamma rays, and other particles.
  6. v. Biochemistry To initiate or increase the production of (an enzyme or other protein) at the level of genetic transcription.
  7. v. Genetics To cause an increase in the transcription of the RNA of (a gene).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To lead in; bring in; introduce.
  2. To draw on; place upon.
  3. To lead by persuasion or influence; prevail upon; incite.
  4. To lead to; bring about by persuasion or influence; bring on or produce in any way; cause: as, his mediation induced a compromise; opium induces sleep.
  5. In physics, to cause or produce by proximity without contact or apparent transmission, as a particular electric or magnetic condition in a body, by the approach of another body which is in an opposite electric or magnetic state.
  6. To infer by induction.
  7. Synonyms and Impel, Induce, etc. See actuate, and list under incite.

Wiktionary

  1. v. to lead by persuasion or influence; incite
  2. v. to cause, bring about, lead to
  3. v. to cause or produce (electric current or a magnetic state) by a physical process of induction
  4. v. to infer by induction.
  5. v. to lead in, bring in, introduce
  6. v. to draw on, place upon

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To lead in; to introduce.
  2. v. To draw on; to overspread.
  3. v. To lead on; to influence; to prevail on; to incite; to persuade; to move by persuasion or influence.
  4. v. To bring on; to effect; to cause.
  5. v. To produce, or cause, by proximity without contact or transmission, as a particular electric or magnetic condition in a body, by the approach of another body in an opposite electric or magnetic state.
  6. v. To generalize or conclude as an inference from all the particulars; -- the opposite of deduce.
  7. v. To cause the expression of (a gene or gene product) by affecting a transcription control element on the genome, either by inhibiting a negative control or by activating a positive control; to derepress.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. produce electric current by electrostatic or magnetic processes
  2. v. reason or establish by induction
  3. v. cause to occur rapidly
  4. v. cause to arise
  5. v. cause to do; cause to act in a specified manner

Etymologies

  1. Middle English inducen, from Old French inducer, from Latin indūcere : in-, in; see in-2 + dūcere, to lead; see deuk- in Indo-European roots.

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‘induce’ has been looked up 2008 times, loved by 2 people, added to 20 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 9.