Word.ws English Dictionary

thin-slicing

thin-slicing noun: the process or ability of making quick (and often accurate) inferences about the state or characteristics of someone or something based only on minimal information or experience (“thin slices”). Also the present participle and gerund of thin-slice.

Noun

thin-slicing (uncountable)

  1. The process or ability of making quick (and often accurate) inferences about the state or characteristics of someone or something based only on minimal information or experience (“thin slices”).
    • "Thin-slicing" refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviour based on very narrow slices of experience. […] Thin-slicing is not an exotic gift. It is a central part of what it means to be human.2009 March 7, Rosie Ifould, “Acting on impulse”, in The Guardian

Also used as

thin-slicing is also the present participle and gerund of thin-slice.

Questions about thin-slicing

What does thin-slicing mean?
Thin-slicing means the process or ability of making quick (and often accurate) inferences about the state or characteristics of someone or something based only on minimal information or experience (“thin slices”).
What part of speech is thin-slicing?
Thin-slicing is a noun.

Words near thin-slicing in the dictionary

  1. thin-skinned
  2. thin-skinnedness
  3. thin-slice
  4. thin-sliced
  5. thin-slices
  6. thin-slicing
  7. thinbladed
  8. thinck
  9. thinclad
  10. thinclads
  11. thincoat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thin-slicing (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: “thin-slicing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thin-slicing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.