when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras

English

Alternative forms

• when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras; when you hear hoofbeats, look for horses, not zebras

Etymology

Coined by American medical researcher Theodore Woodward.

Proverb

when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras

1. (medicine, informal) When diagnosing a patient's symptoms, common ailments should be considered as more probable than rare ones.

   Synonym: horses, not zebras

See also

• Occam's razor

Further reading

• Zebra (medicine) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia