Word.ws English Dictionary

update one's priors

update one's priors verb: to change one's beliefs in the face of new evidence.

Verb

update one's priors (third-person singular simple present updates one's priors, present participle updating one's priors, simple past and past participle updated one's priors)

  1. (rationalist community) To change one's beliefs in the face of new evidence.
    • In others words, the study doesn't make me think I should update my priors much at all.2016 March 23, Aaron E. Carroll, “In Defense of Moderate Drinking (Again)”, in New York Times
    • I think that is a testament to documentary audiences: the film absolutely requires an open mind and heart and a willingness to update your priors in the face of new information.2019 April 19, Simon Thompson, quoting Penny Lane, “The Devilishly Compelling 'Hail Satan?' Challenges More Than Preconceptions”, in Forbes

Synonyms of update one's priors

Forms of update one's priors

third-person singular presentupdates one's priors
present participleupdating one's priors
past participleupdated one's priors
pastupdated one's priors

Questions about update one's priors

What does update one's priors mean?
Update one's priors means to change one's beliefs in the face of new evidence.
What part of speech is update one's priors?
Update one's priors is a verb.
What is the past tense of update one's priors?
The past tense of update one's priors is updated one's priors.

Words near update one's priors in the dictionary

  1. updarting
  2. updarts
  3. updatability
  4. updatable
  5. update
  6. update one's priors
  7. updateabilities
  8. updateability
  9. updateable
  10. updated
  11. updated one's priors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: update one's priors (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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