post hoc
post hoc adjective: after the fact.
Adjective
post hoc (comparative more post hoc, superlative most post hoc)
- After the fact.
- Our work on using research was post hoc rather than planned as an integral part of the original study.1986, Ralph B. Taylor, Urban neighborhoods: research and policy, page 239
- The interpretations offered in this section are clearly much more post hoc than in my discussion of the informants' patterns.2001, Penelope Eckert with John R. Rickford, Style and sociolinguistic variation, page 155
Adverb
post hoc (comparative more post hoc, superlative most post hoc)
- After the fact.
- Ultimately, the wisdom of preemption will be judged post hoc.2005 Fall, David B. Rivkin Jr., “THE VIRTUES OF PREEMPTIVE DETERRENCE”, in Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, volume 29, number 1, page 85
Noun
post hoc (plural post hocs)
- An instance of the post hoc ergō propter hoc fallacy, in which temporal order is confused with causation.
- or that it is altogether fair to accumulate the post hocs with their inevitable suggestion of propter1919, George Saintsbury, A History of the French novel (to the close of the 19th century), page 422
- More grim were the post hocs of the ancient Aztecs. In their experience rain had followed the season of sacrificial rites, and they believed that ....1958, Stuart Chase, Guides to straight thinking: with 13 common fallacies - Page 76
Examples of post hoc in a sentence
- But I knew that my reasoning was post hoc, and another voice came in, mocking me, reminding me that post hoc reasoning is the consolation of the psychotic2008, Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric disturbances, page 40:
- Advertisers play upon our weakness for post hocs1966, Lew Sarett with William Trufant Foster, Basic principles of speech, page 302:
- Accordingly, most of the time it is sufficient to draw lines of post hocs and to make a distinction between causes and symptoms in an almost graphic way.2006, Gerd Gigerenzer with Christoph Engel, Heuristics and the law, page 332:
Forms of post hoc
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more post hoc |
| superlative | most post hoc |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more post hoc |
| superlative | most post hoc |
| Noun | |
| plural | post hocs |
Origin of post hoc
From Latin post hoc.
From Latin post hoc ergō propter hoc.
Words formed from post hoc
Questions about post hoc
- What does post hoc mean?
- Post hoc means after the fact.
- How do you use post hoc in a sentence?
- But I knew that my reasoning was post hoc, and another voice came in, mocking me, reminding me that post hoc reasoning is the consolation of the psychotic
- What part of speech is post hoc?
- Post hoc can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
Words near post hoc in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: post hoc (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “post hoc.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/post_hoc. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.