Dictionary Definition
outcome
Noun
1 something that results; "he listened for the
results on the radio" [syn: result, resultant, final
result, termination]
2 a phenomenon that follows and is caused by some
previous phenomenon; "the magnetic effect was greater when the rod
was lengthwise"; "his decision had depressing consequences for
business"; "he acted very wise after the event" [syn: consequence, effect, result, event, issue, upshot]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
- Information, event, object or state of being produced as a
result or consequence of a plan, process, accident, effort or other
similar action or occurrence.
- A quality automobile is the outcome of the work of skilled engineers and thousands of workers.
- In the context of "education": The results or evidence of
students' learning experience. Often used in place of desired
outcomes.
- The outcomes of this course are outlined in your syllabus.
Translations
result
- Czech: výsledek
Extensive Definition
In game theory,
an outcome is a set of
moves
or strategies
taken by the players, or their payoffs resulting from the
actions or strategies taken by all players. The two are
complementary in that given knowledge of the set of strategies of
all players, the final state of the game is known, as are any
relevant payoffs. In a game where chance or a random event is
involved, the outcome is not known from only the set of strategies,
but is only realized when the random event(s) are realized.
A set of payoffs can considered set of N-tuples,
where N is the number of players in the game, and the cardinality
of the set is equal to the total number of possible outcomes when
the strategies of the players are varied. The payoff set can thus
be partially
ordered, where the partial ordering comes from the value of
each entry in the N-tuple. How players interact to allocate the
payoffs among themselves is a fundamental aspect of economics.
Choosing among outcomes
Many different concepts exist to express how
players might interact. An optimal interaction might be one in
which no player's payoff can be made greater, without making any
other player's payoff lesser. Such a payoff is called Pareto
efficient, and the set of such payoffs is called the Pareto
frontier.
Many economists study the ways in which payoffs
are in some sort of economic
equilibrium. One example of such an equilibrium is the Nash
equilibrium, where each player plays a strategy such that their
payoff is maximized given the strategy of the other players.
Applications
Equilibria are not always Pareto efficient, and a
number of game theorists design ways to enforce Pareto efficient
play, or play that satisfies some other sort of social optimality.
The theory of this is called implementation
theory. Other economists seek to design games based on a
certain set of outcomes, an effort which goes under the name of
mechanism
design.
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
accomplishment, aftermath, answer, artifact, ascertainment, avenue, blowhole, brainchild, by-product,
channel, child, chute, clearing up, coinage, composition, concoction, consequence, consequent, corollary, cracking, creation, creature, crowning achievement,
debouch, decipherment, decoding, denouement, departure, derivation, derivative, determination, development, disentanglement,
distillate, distillation, door, effect, egress, egression, emunctory, end, end product, end result,
escape, essence, estuary, event, eventuality, eventuation, exhaust, exit, exodus, explanation, extract, extraction, finding, finding-out, floodgate, flume, follow-up, forthcoming, fruit, going out, handiwork, harvest, interpretation, invention, issue, legacy, logical outcome, loophole, manufacture, masterpiece, masterwork, mintage, new mintage, offshoot, offspring, opening, opera, opus, opuscule, origination, out, outcoming, outfall, outgate, outgo, outgoing, outgrowth, outlet, pore, port, precipitate, product, production, reason, resolution, resolving, result, resultant, riddling, sally port, sequel, sequela, sequelae, sequence, sequent, sluice, solution, solving, sorting out, spiracle, spout, tap, unraveling, unriddling, unscrambling, unspinning, untangling, untwisting, unweaving, upshot, vent, ventage, venthole, vomitory, wake, way out, weir, work, working,
working-out