Word.ws English Dictionary

satisficing

satisficing is the present participle and gerund of satisfice.

Meaning of satisfice

Verb (1)

satisfice (third-person singular simple present satisfices, present participle satisficing, simple past and past participle satisficed)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To satisfy.

Verb (2)

satisfice (third-person singular simple present satisfices, present participle satisficing, simple past and past participle satisficed)

  1. (intransitive) Of human behavior: to make a choice that suffices to fulfill the minimum requirements to achieve an objective, without special regard for utility maximization or optimization of one's preferences.
    • Evidently, organisms adapt well enough to ‘satisfice’; they do not, in general, ‘optimize’.1956, H[erbert] A. Simon, “Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment”, in Psychological Review, volume 63, number 2, page 129

Adjective

satisficing (not comparable)

  1. Both satisfying and sufficient.
    • A ‘satisficing’ path, a path that will permit satisfaction at some specified level of all its needs.1956, H. A. Simon, “Rational choice and the structure of the environment”, in Psychological Review, volume 63, number 2, page 136

Noun

satisficing (uncountable)

  1. The act or process of satisficing.
    • The end of the poem ["The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost] does not actually depict the narrator looking back at a bold decision with pride. Rather, the narrator is projecting to a future in which they will tell the story of this choice as if it mattered, when really it made no difference. The poem...2026 May 26, David Epstein, “The Real Meaning of "The Road Not Taken". It's not about rugged individualism”, in Range Widely [Substack newsletter]

Origin of satisficing

See satisfice.

Questions about satisficing

What does satisficing mean?
Satisficing means both satisfying and sufficient.
What is satisficing the present participle and gerund of?
Satisficing is the present participle and gerund of satisfice.
What part of speech is satisficing?
Satisficing can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near satisficing in the dictionary

  1. satisfice
  2. satisficed
  3. satisficer
  4. satisficers
  5. satisfices
  6. satisficing
  7. satisfie
  8. satisfied
  9. satisfied oneself
  10. satisfiedly
  11. satisfiedness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: satisficing (page history and authors); satisfice (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: “satisficing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/satisficing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.