Prōb'a-bĭl'i-ty, n.

n. [Fr. probabilité, It. probabilità, Sp. probabilidad, Lat. probabilitas.] 1. The quality of being probable; appearance of truth; likelihood. Probability is the appearance of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas by the intervention of proofs whose connection is not constant, but appears for the most part to be so. Locke. 2. Something probable; any thing that has the appearance of reality or truth. In this sense, the word admits of the plural number. The whole life of man is a perpetual comparison of evidence, and balancing of probabilities. Buckminster. 3. (Math.) Likelihood of the occurrence of any event in the doctrine of chances, or the ratio of the whole number of chances, favorable and unfavorable, to the number of favorable chances. Syn. — Verisimilitude; likeliness; credibleness; likelihood; chance.