apodictic

ap•o•dic•tic (ap-uh-DIK-tik)  adj
also apodeictic (ap-uh-DAHYK-tik)

Definition:
1. incontestable because of having been demonstrated or proved to be demonstrable
2. (of a logical proposition) necessarily true or logically certain
apodictically adverb

Origin:
1650s, from L. apodicticus, from Gk. apodeiktikos, from apodeiktos, verbal adjective of apodeiknynai "to show off, demonstrate," lit. "to point away from" (other objects, at one), from apo "off, away" + deiknynai "to show"

Related:
Synonyms: certain, inarguable, incontestable, incontrovertible, indisputable, indubitable, irrebuttable, irrefragable, proven, unassailable, undeniable, unimpeachable, unquestionable
Related Words: paradigm

Sentence Examples:
• The Chatelaine of a certain sugar plantation in Louisiana, in preparing a list of guests for her house-party, discovered, in one of those explosive moments of inspiration, that all people were easily divided into two fundamental groups or families, the Sulphites and the Bromides. The revelation was apodictic, convincing; it made life a different thing; it made society almost plausible. - Are You A Bromide?, Gelett Burgess

• When we add further that, unless we deny that the notion of morality has any truth or reference to any possible object, we must admit that its law must be valid, not merely for men, but for all rational creatures generally, not merely under certain contingent conditions or with exceptions, but with absolute necessity, then it is clear that no experience could enable us to infer even the possibility of such apodictic laws. For with what right could we bring into unbounded respect as a universal precept for every rational nature that which perhaps holds only under the contingent conditions of humanity? - Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Moral, Immanuel Kant

• If it be assumed that those principles only are practical, which may be applied immediately by every reader, in practice, this work must disclaim all pretensions to that title. I doubt very much if, in this sense, there is a single science susceptible of a practical exposition. Genuine practitioners, who know life with its thousands of relations by experience, will be the first to grant that such a collection of prescriptions, when the question is the knowledge and guidance of men, would be misleading and dangerous in proportion as such prescriptions were positive and apodictic, that is non-practical and doctrinarian. - Principles Of Political Economy, William Roscher

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

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