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William of Occam (also spelled "Ockham") didn't invent the rule associated with his name. Others had espoused the "keep it simple" concept before that 14th-century philosopher and theologian embraced it, but no one wielded the principle (also known as the "law of parsimony") as relentlessly as he did. He used it to counter what he considered the fuzzy logic of his theological contemporaries, and his applications of it inspired 19th-century Scottish philosopher Sir William Hamilton to link Occam with the idea of cutting away extraneous material, giving us the modern name for the principle.
Examples of Occam's razor in a Sentence
Ron Estes, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Mar. 2025
Data science often tackles complex real-world issues, and unlike what Occam's razor suggests, looking for the simplest possible explanations typically leads to false causality.
—Pawel Rzeszucinski, Forbes, 16 Aug. 2022
Thinking parsimoniously - using Occam's razor and looking at probabilities here - what's more likely: an airplane flying away from a big city, or a big rock burning up in our atmosphere that almost no one saw?
—Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 2 July 2012
Cite this Entry
“Occam's razor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Occam%27s%20razor. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.
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