occam's razor

Occam's razor

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- US Pronunciation
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Definitions of occam's razor words

noun occam's razor the maxim that assumptions introduced to explain a thing must not be multiplied beyond necessity. 1
noun Definition of occam's razor in Technology (philosophy) The English philosopher, William of Occam (1300-1349) propounded Occam's Razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. (Latin for "Entities should not be multiplied more than necessary"). That is, the fewer assumptions an explanation of a phenomenon depends on, the better it is. For example, some claim that God caused himself to exist and also caused the universe to exist - he was the "first cause" - whereas Occam's Razor suggests that if one accepts the possibility of something causing itself then it is better to assume that it was the universe that caused itself rather than God because this explanation involves fewer entities. The negation of Occam's Razor would suggest that an arbitrarily complex explanation is just as good as the simplest one. (E.g. God and his cat created a robot called Sparky who built the universe from parts bought from a shop in another dimension). See also KISS Principle. 1
noun occam's razor a philosophical or scientific principle according to which the best explanation of an event is the one that is the simplest, using the fewest assumptions or hypotheses 0

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Origin of occam's razor

First appearance:

before 1900

One of the 17% newest English words

First recorded in 1900-05; after William of Occam

Historical Comparancy

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Full grammatical hierarchy of Occam's razor

occam's razor popularity

This term is known only to a narrow circle of people with rare knowledge. Only 29% of English native speakers know the meaning of this word.

According to our data about 75% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.