RS Glossary
Chain of Thought
Chain of thought is a term for intermediate reasoning steps used or elicited while solving a multi-step problem, whether those steps are internal to a model or presented as an explanation.
- Review state
- Reviewed in POC
- Freshness
- Current
- Version
- 2
- Chain of Thought
- Chain-of-Thought Reasoning
Remember it this wayReasoning text can aid review without proving the reasoning is faithful.
In plain language
Breaking a problem into smaller steps can improve some results. A system may reason internally, provide a concise rationale, or generate a visible step-by-step explanation depending on its design and settings.
Why it matters
Visible reasoning can help a person inspect an answer, but it should not be treated as a guaranteed transcript of the model's internal process or as proof that the conclusion is correct.
Example
A system solves a planning problem internally and returns the recommendation with a short list of assumptions, checks, and decisive factors for human review.
Common misconception
A fluent step-by-step explanation is not automatically faithful, complete, or correct. Verification still requires evidence or an independent method.
Related terms
Sources
- Wei et al., *Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models* (NeurIPS 2022)primary paper introducing chain-of-thought prompting and reporting its measured effects.
- Google Research, *Towards Understanding Chain-of-Thought Prompting: An Empirical Study of What Matters*empirical analysis of which properties of generated reasoning steps affect performance.
Learn more
- Pair any rationale with [[verification|Verification]] rather than treating explanation as evidence.
Public history
45 recorded events · 45 public summaries
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definition approved by a human reviewer.
plain-language-explanation approved by a human reviewer.
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example approved by a human reviewer.
common-misconception approved by a human reviewer.
remember-it-this-way approved by a human reviewer.
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sources returned for revision.
learn-more approved by a human reviewer.
Requested wording was prepared without changing approved or existing sections.
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Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
Radar must rereview the complete chain-of-thought term after an accepted text change.
sources approved by a human reviewer.
sources approved wording became the current section text.
All section gates are approved; content version 2 is now a fully approved term.
Radar rereviewed the human-approved definition wording for this exact version.
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Source: vault/Glossary/terms/chain-of-thought/term.md · sha256:b939fb1c128fbe84414ff988ee6d70ad3755df5bc1d5ea9f6e21f9c2d864e0eb · Release: rs-glossary-glossary-team-poc-0.5.5-2026-09-02