simulation
Pluralsimulations (some meanings)
- 1The act or process of imitating how a real system or process behaves, often to study, test, or train without the real thing.
Engineers rely on simulation to predict how a new aircraft will perform in flight.
Climate researchers use simulation to model how the oceans respond to rising temperatures.
Similarmodeling
- 2A model, program, or device that imitates a real system or environment in order to predict its actual behavior.
The engineers ran a simulation to predict how the dam would behave under flood conditions.
A detailed simulation of the spacecraft's descent revealed several design flaws.
Similarmodel
- 3A video game built to give a more or less realistic experience of an activity such as a sport, flying, or warfare.
The new racing simulation reproduces every curve of the famous track.
Many players prefer a military simulation that rewards careful strategy over fast reflexes.
Note
Gaming borrows the word as a genre name, so it pluralizes freely: kids go home to play simulations. A title is usually called a racing, flight or military simulation, with the modifier naming the activity being reproduced. What sets the genre apart is its claim to realism. This is the same promise of fidelity that the predictive model makes, turned toward play rather than forecasting.
- 4The act of putting on a false appearance, pretending to have feelings, qualities, or conditions that are not genuine.
The patient's symptoms were dismissed as simulation by the skeptical examiner.
His display of grief was mere simulation, calculated to deflect suspicion.
Similarpretense, feigning, sham, pretending
Note
Here the word keeps the edge of its Latin source, simulō, "imitate": to imitate a state or feeling you are not actually in. Francis Bacon gave it a whole essay in 1625, "Of Simulation and Dissimulation", pairing pretending to be what one is not with hiding what one is. In use it is usually an accusation, as when grief or symptoms are dismissed as mere simulation.
- 5The act of deliberately falling over to deceive the referee into awarding a foul that has not actually been committed.
He was cautioned for simulation when he threw himself down in the penalty area.
Video review has made it harder for players to get away with simulation.
Similardiving
Note
Football turns the old sense of feigning into an on-field offense, and "simulation" is the formal term referees and officials use for it. Premier League referee Graham Poll said in 2004 that players were "very good at simulation" and that referees had to issue more cards for it. A player is cautioned for simulation, and a manager may call for action on it.
Practice
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Origin
First attested around 1340 as Middle English "symulacioun," borrowed through Middle and Old French from Latin "simulātiōnem," from "simulō" ("to imitate"). It can also be analyzed as "simulate" plus the suffix "-ion."