From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stochastic \Sto*chas"tic\ (st[-o]*k[a^]s"t[i^]k), adjective [Gr. stochastiko's, from stocha'zesqai to aim, to guess, fr. sto'chos mark or aim.]
1. Conjectural; able to conjecture. [Obs.] --Whitefoot.
2. random; chance; involving probability; opposite of {deterministic}. [GG]
3. (Statistics) of or pertaining to a process in which a series of calculations, selections, or observations are made, each one being randomly determined as a sample from a probability distribution.
Note: Where physical phenomena are modelled as a stochastic process, each subsequent calculation of a series may depend on the result of the previous calculation, as in the modelling of the process of diffusion of molecules. Many series may be calculated, and the results averaged, to estimate the most likely result. See also {Markov chain}. [PJC] -- {sto*chas"tic*al*ly}, adverb [PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: being or having a random variable; "a stochastic variable"; "stochastic processes"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
63 Moby Thesaurus words for "stochastic": aimless, aleatoric, aleatory, amorphous, blobby, blurred, blurry, broad, casual, causeless, chance, chancy, chaotic, confused, designless, disordered, driftless, dysteleological, foggy, fuzzy, general, haphazard, hazy, hit-or-miss, ill-defined, imprecise, inaccurate, inchoate, incoherent, indecisive, indefinable, indefinite, indeterminable, indeterminate, indiscriminate, indistinct, inexact, inexplicable, lax, loose, mindless, nonspecific, obscure, orderless, promiscuous, purposeless, random, shadowed forth, shadowy, shapeless, stray, sweeping, unaccountable, unclear, undefined, undestined, undetermined, undirected, unmotivated, unplain, unspecified, vague, veiled
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
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