Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Excessively sparing or frugal.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Characterized by parsimony in practice or disposition; very sparing in expenditure; frugal to excess; stinting.
- Synonyms Miserly, etc. See
penurious .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Exhibiting parsimony; sparing in expenditure of money; frugal to excess; penurious; stingy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Exhibiting
parsimony ; sparing in expenditure of money;frugal to excess;penurious ;stingy . - adjective Using a minimal number of assumptions, steps, or conjectures.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective excessively unwilling to spend
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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No less impressive was Nintendo's remarkable ability to extend the format's life by offering conservative -- one might even say "parsimonious" -- upgrades.
1UP RSS feed 2009
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At no point in their history had the Dreevers been what one might call a parsimonious family.
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He could hardly be called parsimonious, but, like most men who have successfully fought their own way through life, he was rather fond of authority, and little disposed to divest himself of his wealth until he should have no further occasion for it.
The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales John Charles Dent 1864
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They write that the most "parsimonious" explanation of the results rests on "a few fundamental factors."
What really happened in the 2010 election E.J. Dionne 2010
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The Globe and Mail describes the new federal budget as "parsimonious," but the Liberals won't vote against it:
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Once that came out, people should have backed off, and maybe Mr. Howard the next time around would use the word "parsimonious" instead of "niggardly," knowing that there might be someone close by who might get the wrong impression of the word he was using.
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Both philosophically and psycho-therapeutically, it is more reasonable and parsimonious to view a patient with "Multiple Personalities", as having a single, very dysfunctional personality.
Scott Mendelson, M.D.: Psychiatry: The Cause--Not the Cure of Multiple Personality Disorder M.D. Scott Mendelson 2011
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Both philosophically and psycho-therapeutically, it is more reasonable and parsimonious to view a patient with "Multiple Personalities", as having a single, very dysfunctional personality.
Scott Mendelson, M.D.: Psychiatry: The Cause--Not the Cure of Multiple Personality Disorder M.D. Scott Mendelson 2011
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The rights guaranteed by the American Constitution are parsimonious by international standards, and they are frozen in amber.
NYT Says 'Old' Constitution Outdated for Failing to Guarantee 'Entitlements' Like Health Care Clay Waters 2012
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These requirements vary across different scientific fields of knowledge, but in general theories are expected to be functional and parsimonious: i.e. a theory should be the simplest possible tool that can be used to effectively address the given class of phenomena.
Think Progress » Inhofe’s Grandchildren Build Igloo To Mock Killer Snow Storm: ‘Al Gore’s New Home’ 2010
thinkcharlene commented on the word parsimonious
SpongeBob SquarePants - Season 3, Episode 17 - "Born Again Krabs"
February 25, 2007
mohitanand commented on the word parsimonious
extremely frugal; miserly
Katie is so parsimonious that she only buys a pair of socks if all of her other socks have holes in them.
October 11, 2016