probable cause

probable cause
    n 1: (law) evidence sufficient to warrant an arrest or search
         and seizure; "a magistrate determined that there was
         probable cause to search the house"
    

Probable \Prob"a*ble\, a. [L. probabilis, fr. probare to try,
   approve, prove: cf. F. probable. See {Prove}, and cf.
   {Provable}.]
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   1. Capable of being proved. [Obs.]
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   2. Having more evidence for than against; supported by
      evidence which inclines the mind to believe, but leaves
      some room for doubt; likely.
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            That is accounted probable which has better
            arguments producible for it than can be brought
            against it.                           --South.
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            I do not say that the principles of religion are
            merely probable; I have before asserted them to be
            morally certain.                      --Bp. Wilkins.
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   3. Rendering probable; supporting, or giving ground for,
      belief, but not demonstrating; as, probable evidence;
      probable presumption. --Blackstone.
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   {Probable cause} (Law), a reasonable ground of presumption
      that a charge is, or my be, well founded.

   {Probable error} (of an observation, or of the mean of a
      number), that within which, taken positively and
      negatively, there is an even chance that the real error
      shall lie. Thus, if 3[sec] is the probable error in a
      given case, the chances that the real error is greater
      than 3[sec] are equal to the chances that it is less. The
      probable error is computed from the observations made, and
      is used to express their degree of accuracy.

   {The probable}, that which is within the bounds of
      probability; that which is not unnatural or preternatural;
      -- opposed to the marvelous.
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