PROBABIL'ITY, noun [Latin probabilitas. See Probable.]

1. Likelihood; appearance of truth; that state of a case or question of fact which results from superior evidence or preponderation of argument on one side, inclining the mind to receive it as the truth, but leaving some room for doubt. It therefore falls short of moral certainty, but produces what is called opinion.

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.

Demonstration produces science or certain knowledge; proof produces belief, and probability opinion.

1. Any thing that has the appearance of reality or truth. In this sense, the word admits of the plural number.

The whole like of man is a perpetual comparison of evidence and balancing of probabilities.