parsimony

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
“
By appeal to theoretical parsimony, according to Bayle, “the Cartesians may maintain that no such thing as matter exists; for whether it doth or doth not exist, God could equally communicate to us all the thought we have.”

View all »
Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Unusual or excessive frugality; extreme economy or stinginess.
  2. 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.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples

  • He promised a strict adherence to his maxims of parsimony, and went away in the stage coach; nor did his friends expect to hear from him, 'till he informed them of his arrival at Swansea. —  The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland
  • By appeal to theoretical parsimony, according to Bayle, “the Cartesians may maintain that no such thing as matter exists; for whether it doth or doth not exist, God could equally communicate to us all the thought we have.” —  This, About The Man I Met Out Here In Nearly Nowhere
  • A little later he wrote: — 'I have done thinking of — — whom we now call Sir Sawney; he has disgusted all mankind by injudicious parsimony, and given occasion to so many stories, that — — has some thoughts of collecting them, and making a novel of his life.' —  Life of Johnson
  • His lordship had a reputation for parsimony, and he fancied it a bargain if he could sell to my father those squalid fields for L2000, — so he offered them to him at that price. —  My Life as an Author
  • District Councils, and their parsimony is to be appeased by the fact that the funds, which are largely derived from economics in the Irish —  Ireland and the Home Rule Movement
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

Parsimony has been looked up 415 times, favorited 0 times, listed 53 times, and commented on once.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English parcimony, from Latin parsimōnia, from parsus, past participle of parcere, to spare.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also parcimony; from Old French parsimonie, French parcimonie = Spanish Italian parsimonia = Portuguese parcimonia, parsimonia, from Latin parsimonia, parcimonia, sparingness, frugality, from parcere, be sparing.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈpɑrsɪməni/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a year.

Recent Lookups

Trelawny · administrivia · tHe · gerere · horse-chestnut

Recent Favorites

TelePalmter · Espoo · stick-to-it-iveness · supine · doxastic

Recent Pronunciations

milosrdenstvi · lichen-covered · futon · sagacity · monoragngocious