surprisal

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surprisal

/sə(ɹ)ˈpɹaɪzəl/

Where it comes from

(information measure): Defined by Myron Tribus in the 1961 book Thermostatics and Thermodynamics.

noun surprisals

countable, obsolete, uncountable A surprise attack or ambush; a sudden or unexpected assault. Their chiefe attempts are by Stratagems, trecheries, or surprisals.
countable, obsolete, uncountable A sudden coming-upon someone or something unexpectedly or unawares. How to secure the lady from surprisal
countable, obsolete, uncountable A surprising event or occurrence.
countable, obsolete, uncountable The feeling caused by being surprised; surprise, shock, amazement.
countable, uncountable An information measure as equal in bits (binary digits) to the base-2 log of 1 over the probability, with the result that the number of choices equals 2ⁿ where n is the number of bits. Because language is produced and processed over time, we get it bit by bit. This allows a measure of the goodness of an incoming word according to how expected it was, given the preceding context: its expectedness or surprisal. Surprisal and expectedness are inverses: When an incoming word is highly
Similar: Shannon information

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MLA

"surprisal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/surprisal. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

surprisal. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/surprisal

Chicago

"surprisal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/surprisal.

BibTeX

@misc{surprisal_2026,
  title = {surprisal},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/surprisal},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}