Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Unusual or excessive frugality; extreme economy or stinginess.
- noun Adoption of the simplest assumption in the formulation of a theory or in the interpretation of data, especially in accordance with the rule of Ockham's razor.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Sparingness in the use or expenditure of means; most commonly, excessive or unnecessary economy; stinginess; niggardliness.
- noun Synonyms Stinginess, niggardliness, penuriousness. See
penurious .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Closeness or sparingness in the expenditure of money; -- generally in a bad sense; excessive frugality; niggardliness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Great reluctance to spend money unnecessarily.
- noun By analogy from (1), principle of using the least resources or explanations to solve a problem.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun extreme stinginess
- noun extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Simply put, parsimony is in vogue in boardrooms right now.
Football's Level Playing Field Jonathan Clegg 2010
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The principle of parsimony is a centuries-old aspect of the scientific method.
Beckwith on ID 2008
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The principle of parsimony is a centuries-old aspect of the scientific method.
Beckwith on ID 2008
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Doug: You do assume (in the absence of any observation) that parsimony is more reliable guide to understanding the natural order than say an approach that is more complex.
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Doug: And your mention of parsimony is not something that is directly derived from the observation, it is your presupposition.
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You do assume (in the absence of any observation) that parsimony is more reliable guide to understanding the natural order than say an approach that is more complex.
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And your mention of parsimony is not something that is directly derived from the observation, it is your presupposition.
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As in parsimony, Darwinism seems the simplest solution to satisfy the non-telic, power hungry palettes.
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Oh, it was worth while to have/[Page 233]/spent four days in parsimony; to have been bitten with bugs; to have been irritated with fuss and humbug, and last of all to have been done out of my travelling expenses back! it was worth while to have had all this botheration to refresh my sense of all my mercies.
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It's a result of empirical observations coupled with parsimony aka "Occam's Razor".
Science as a form of "faith"?? Steve Caldwell 2009
abraxaszugzwang commented on the word parsimony
if this were pronounced more like persimmon, I would like it.
March 13, 2007