advb. (and adj.) phr. [L. ā posteriōri from what comes after (as opposed to ā priōri from what is before).] A phrase used to characterize reasoning or arguing from effects to causes, from experience and not from axioms; empirical, inductive; inductively.
1710. Berkeley, Princ. Hum. Knowl., § 21. I think arguments à posteriori are unnecessary for confirming what has been sufficiently demonstrated à priori.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 199/1. In common language, we reason à priori when we infer the existence of a God from the general difficulties in the supposition of the existence of what we then call the creation on any other hypothesis; but we reason à posteriori when we infer the same from marks of intelligent contrivance in this particular creation with which we are acquainted.
18367. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., xxi. (1870), II. 26. Knowledge a posteriori is a synonym for knowledge empirical, or from experience.