Excerpted from Wikipedia on 30-Oct-2014
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic
Heuristic (/hjʉˈrɪstɨk/; Greek: “Εὑρίσκω”, “find” or “discover”) refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery that finds a solution which is not guaranteed to be optimal, but good enough for a given set of goals. Where the exhaustive search is impractical, heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution via mental shortcuts to ease the cognitive load of making a decision. Examples of this method include using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, stereotyping, or common sense.
More precisely, heuristics are strategies using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem solving in human beings and machines.