PROBABLE CAUSE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Probable cause

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/prˈɑbəbəl kɑz/ Listen

adjective

Probable adj.

1.

Capable of being proved. (Obs.)

2.

Having more evidence for than against; supported by evidence which inclines the mind to believe, but leaves some room for doubt; likely. "That is accounted probable which has better arguments producible for it than can be brought against it." "I do not say that the principles of religion are merely probable; I have before asserted them to be morally certain."

3.

Rendering probable; supporting, or giving ground for, belief, but not demonstrating; as, probable evidence; probable presumption.

Probable cause (Law), a reasonable ground of presumption that a charge is, or my be, well founded.

Probable error (of an observation, or of the mean of a number), that within which, taken positively and negatively, there is an even chance that the real error shall lie. Thus, if 3" is the probable error in a given case, the chances that the real error is greater than 3" are equal to the chances that it is less. The probable error is computed from the observations made, and is used to express their degree of accuracy.

The probable, that which is within the bounds of probability; that which is not unnatural or preternatural; opposed to the marvelous.

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Etymology of 'Probable cause'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Probable cause" Quotes from Famous Books

... jumped to his feet in dire dismay, and, without stopping to reflect on the probable cause of this startling interruption, "struck a bee line" for the staircase, and descended quicker, probably, than he had ever done before, narrowly escaping tumbling the entire ...

— Try and Trust • Horatio Alger

... justification in his other works for the doctrine that women are inferior to men for the same reason that male serfs are inferior to their masters. His refusal to consider difference of sex as even one probable cause of women's inferiority to men in mental and moral characteristics, was something for which few of his disciples were prepared, or which they ever got over; and indeed his whole treatment of the question of sex showed, in the opinion of many, a constitutional incapacity to deal with the gravest ...

— Reflections and Comments 1865-1895 • Edwin Lawrence Godkin

... until very late in many of the quarters, while at Captain Wren's and Lieutenant Blakely's people were up and moving about until long after midnight. Of course No. 5 had heard all about the dreadful affair of the early evening. What he and his fellows puzzled over was the probable cause of Captain Wren's furious assault upon his subaltern. Many a theory was afloat, Duane, with unlooked-for discretion, having held his tongue as to the brief conversation that preceded the blow. ...

— An Apache Princess - A Tale of the Indian Frontier • Charles King

... is ascribed by Dr. Whately to the fact that "all men are more gratified at catching the resemblance for themselves, than in having it pointed out to them." But after what has been said, the great economy it achieves will seem the more probable cause. Lear's exclamation— ...

— The Philosophy of Style • Herbert Spencer

... in comparison with that of human life: still acuteness of observation alone can direct him to the main cause of suffering in the brute creation, as the animal, though groaning under the most severe pains, cannot by any word of explanation point out to us the seat, the probable cause, or peculiar characteristics of such pain. We see that our dog is ill, he refuses his food, retires gloomily to his house, looks sullen, breathes heavy, is no longer delighted at our call. We cannot question him as to his feelings, or ask him to point out the particular ...

— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

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