Meanings
comparative more Laplacean · superlative most Laplacean
- not comparableusuallyOf or related to Pierre Simon Laplace; (of mathematical terms) embodying or reflecting his methods or ideas.
1 more example
Laplace had owned Bayes’ rule in all but name since 1781. The formula, the method, and its masterful utilization all belong to Pierre Simon Laplace. He made probability-based statistics commonplace. By transforming a theory of gambling into practical mathematics, Laplace’s work dominated probability and statistics for a century. “In my mind,” Glenn Shafer of Rutgers University observed, “Laplace did everything, and we just read stuff back into Thomas Bayes. Laplace put it into modern terms. In a sense, everything is Laplacean.” If advancing the world’s knowledge is important, Bayes’ rule should be called Laplace’s rule or, in modern parlance, BPL for Bayes-Price-Laplace. Sadly, a half century of usage forces us to give Bayes’ name to what was really Laplace’s achievement.
2011, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, quoting Glenn Shafer, The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 32
Origin
From Laplace + -ean, after Pierre-Simon Laplace.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Laplacean. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Laplacean
“Laplacean.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Laplacean. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Laplacean,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Laplacean.
Source: Laplacean on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.