diagnostic.

1. Helping determine the nature or cause of a condition, problem, or fault.

2. A test, tool, or procedure used to identify the nature or cause of a problem.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• diagnostic test
• diagnostic routine

On the page

A diagnostic routine traced the fault to the sensor.

The doctor requested a diagnostic test before deciding on treatment.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Normally non-gradable as a function; more diagnostic can compare evidential usefulness. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.