Occam's razor Look up Occam's razor at Dictionary.com
when two competing hypotheses explain the data equally well, choose the simpler. Or, as Sir William Hamilton puts it, "Neither more, nor more onerous, causes are to be assumed, than are necessary to account for the phenomena." Named for English philosopher William of Ockham or Occam (c.1285-c.1349), who expressed it with Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter ncccssitatem.