heuristic

a. [ Gr. e"yri`skein to discover.] 1. Serving to promote discovery or learning; -- used especially of thories or paradigms which stimulate new ideas for discovering facts in experimental sciences. [1913 Webster +PJC]

2. Serving to stimulate people to learn and discover on their own, especially by encouraging experimental and trial-and-error methods for solving problems. [PJC]

3. Pertaining to or based on trial-and-error and experimental methods of learning and evaluation. [PJC]

4. (Computers) Based on the use of an efficient trial-and error method to search a space of possible solutions to a problem, or to find an acceptable approximate solution, when an exact algorithmic method is unavailable or too time-consuming. [PJC]