1. involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods
Usage: often used in educational or problem-solving contexts

1. a heuristic method or process; a rule of thumb or mental shortcut used to solve problems or make decisions quickly
Usage: commonly used in psychology, computer science, and decision-making

Examples

• The teacher used a heuristic approach to help students discover the mathematical principle.
• Trial and error is a common heuristic method for solving puzzles.
• The availability heuristic causes people to judge probability by how easily examples come to mind.
• Computer programmers often use heuristics to find approximate solutions to complex problems.
• His heuristic for choosing restaurants was simple: pick the one with the longest line.
• The detective’s heuristic reasoning led her to focus on the most likely suspects first.
• Students learned to apply heuristic strategies when approaching unfamiliar math problems.