# logistic

Pronunciation: say "luh-JIS-tik" /ləˈd͡ʒɪs.tɪk/

## Adjective

1. Relating to logistics, the organizing of how people, equipment and supplies are moved and provided.
   - Simple: Having to do with logistics, the work of moving and supplying people and things.
   - _The festival ran into serious logistic trouble when half the shuttle buses broke down._
   - _Steady logistic support kept the relief teams supplied through the winter._
2. In statistics and mathematics, relating to the logistic function.
   - Simple: In statistics, having to do with the logistic function and the curve it makes.
   - _The analysts used logistic regression to predict which customers would cancel._
   - _The bacteria showed logistic growth, leveling off once the nutrients ran short._
4. In mathematics, relating to symbolic logic.
   - Simple: Having to do with logic that uses symbols, the way math does.
   - _The philosopher defended a logistic account of mathematics, deriving arithmetic from pure logic._
   - _His logistic notation filled the blackboard with arrows and inverted letters._

## Noun

3. In mathematics, a function of the logistic type, or a graph showing a logistic curve.
   - Simple: In math, a logistic function, or a drawing of its curve on a graph.
   - _We fitted a logistic to the growth data and estimated the ceiling from it._
   - _Plot a logistic and you will see the familiar S shape._

## Adjective

5. Relating to basic arithmetic. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Having to do with simple math, like adding and dividing.
   - _The primer opened with the logistic rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing._
   - _Apprentices were drilled in logistic operations until they could total a column of figures without error._
6. Skilled at calculating with numbers. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Good at doing sums and working with numbers.
7. Corresponding in size, amount or degree to something else; proportional. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: In the right share or size compared with something else.
8. Using sexagesimal fractions, those based on sixty, especially in arithmetic or in logarithms. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Using fractions based on sixty, like the minutes and seconds of an hour.
   - _The navigator looked up the angle in a table of logistic logarithms._
   - _The astronomer expressed the fraction in logistic form, as so many sixtieths and so many sixtieths of a sixtieth._

## Noun

9. The art or skill of calculation. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The skill of doing sums and working with numbers.
10. Sexagesimal arithmetic: calculation in which numbers and fractions are counted in sixties. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Math done by counting in sixties, as with minutes and seconds.
   - _The astronomer did all his reckoning in logistic, splitting every degree into sixty minutes and every minute into sixty seconds._
   - _His tables of planetary positions were worked out in logistic rather than in common fractions._

## Origin

**Meanings 2–10** — From French logistique, from Ancient Greek logistikós ("practised in arithmetic; rational"), from logízomai ("I reason, I calculate"), from lógos ("reason, computation"), the same source as logic and logarithm. The "logistic function" was named in French by Pierre François Verhulst in 1845, presumably by analogy with arithmetic and geometric and in contrast with the logarithmic curve, and the term was then borrowed into English.
**Meaning 1** — From French logistique, from loger ("to lodge") or logis ("lodging place").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/logistic (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).