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What is the difference between implication and inference?

implication | inference |

In uncountable terms the difference between implication and inference

is that implication is the state of being implicated while inference is the act or process of inferring by deduction or induction.

In countable terms the difference between implication and inference

is that implication is an implying, or that which is implied, but not expressed; an inference, or something which may fairly be understood, though not expressed in words while inference is that which is inferred; a truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted or supposed to be true; a conclusion; a deduction.

implication

English

Noun

  • (uncountable) The act of implicating.
  • (uncountable) The state of being implicated.
  • (countable) An implying, or that which is implied, but not expressed; an inference, or something which may fairly be understood, though not expressed in words.
  • * 2011 , Lance J. Rips, Lines of Thought: Central Concepts in Cognitive Psychology (page 168)
  • But we can also take a more analytical attitude to these displays, interpreting the movements as no more than approachings, touchings, and departings with no implication that one shape caused the other to move.
  • (countable, logic) The connective in propositional calculus that, when joining two predicates A and B in that order, has the meaning "if A is true, then B is true".
  • Derived terms

    * material implication * strict implication

    inference

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The act or process of inferring by deduction or induction.
  • (countable) That which is inferred; a truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted or supposed to be true; a conclusion; a deduction.
  • Derived terms

    * deductive inference * inductive inference * statistical inference