Occam's razor

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• Ockham’s razor

Etymology

After William of Occam, an advocate of the law of parsimony, and the idea of a razor as a tool that trims or shaves. See citations for coinage.

Noun

Occam’s razor

1. The principle that entities should not be needlessly multiplied.
2. (sciences) The principle of preferring the simpler of two competing theories.

Synonyms

• law of parsimony

Translations

both principles

• Bosnian: Okamova britva f
• Bulgarian: бръснач на Окам (brǎsnač na Okam) m
• Catalan: navalla d'Occam f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 奧卡姆剃刀 (cmn), 奥卡姆剃刀 (cmn) (Aòkǎmǔ tìdāo)

• Croatian: Occamova oštrica f, Ockhamova britva f
• Czech: Occamova břitva (cs) f
• Danish: Ockhams ragekniv
• Dutch: Ockhams scheermes n
• Estonian: Ockhami habemenuga
• Finnish: Occamin partaveitsi (fi)
• French: rasoir d’Occam (fr) m
• Galician: navalla de Occam (gl) f
• German: Ockhams Rasiermesser (de) n
• Hebrew: תערו של אוקאם (he) (ta’aru shel Okkam) m
• Hungarian: Occam borotvája
• Icelandic: rakhnífur Ockhams (is) m
• Indonesian: pisau Ockham
• Interlingua: rasorio de Occam (ia)
• Italian: rasoio di Occam (it) m

• Japanese: オッカムの剃刀 (ja) (okkamu no kamisori)
• Korean: 오컴의 면도날 (ko) (okeom-ui myeondonal)
• Latin: novacula Guillelmi de Ockham (la) f
• Lithuanian: m
• Norwegian: Ockhams barberkniv (no) m
• Persian: تیغ اوکام (tigh Okâm)
• Polish: brzytwa Ockhama (pl) f
• Portuguese: navalha de Occam (pt) f
• Romanian: briciul lui Occam (ro) m
• Russian: бритва Оккама (ru) (brítva Ókkama) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Окамова бритва (sh) f

  Roman: Okamova britva (sh) f

• Slovene: Occamova britev (sl) m, Occamovo rezilo (sl) n
• Spanish: navaja de Occam (es) f
• Swedish: Ockhams rakkniv (sv) c
• Thai: หลักการของออคแคม (th) (làk gaan kŏng òkkaem)
• Ukrainian: принцип простоти (uk) (pryntsyp prostoty) m, бритва Оккама (uk) (brytva Okkama) f

See also

• Newton’s flaming laser sword