parsimony.

1. The preference for explanations or models that use no more assumptions or components than are needed.

2. An extreme unwillingness to spend money or use resources, sometimes beyond reasonable economy.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• principle of parsimony
• model parsimony

On the page

The simpler model was favored for its parsimony, not merely its elegance.

Parsimony mattered only after both accounts explained the observations.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.