ETYM Greek eyriskein to discover.
1. Ofo or relating to a general formulation that serves to guide investigation.
2. (Computer science) Relating to or using a heuristic rule.
3. Helping to discover by trial and error.
4. Revealing; leading to discovery; using trial and error to arrive at a solution.

A commonsense rule (or set of rules) intended to increase the probability of solving some problem; SYN. heuristic rule, heuristic program.
An approach or algorithm that leads to a correct solution of a programming task by nonrigorous or self-learning means. One approach to programming is first to develop a heuristic and then to improve on it. The term comes from Greek heuriskein (“to discover, find out”) and is related to “eureka” (“I have found it”).