Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
(law) evidence sufficient to warrant an arrest or search and seizure;
- Example: "a magistrate determined that there was probable cause to search the house"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Probable \Prob"a*ble\, a. [L. probabilis, fr. probare to try,
approve, prove: cf. F. probable. See Prove, and cf.
Provable.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Capable of being proved. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
2. Having more evidence for than against; supported by
evidence which inclines the mind to believe, but leaves
some room for doubt; likely.
[1913 Webster]
That is accounted probable which has better
arguments producible for it than can be brought
against it. --South.
[1913 Webster]
I do not say that the principles of religion are
merely probable; I have before asserted them to be
morally certain. --Bp. Wilkins.
[1913 Webster]
3. Rendering probable; supporting, or giving ground for,
belief, but not demonstrating; as, probable evidence;
probable presumption. --Blackstone.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
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"