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Occam's razor - problem-solving principle attributed William of Ockham, English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. states 'among competing hypotheses, select one with fewest assumptions'.

Ockham's razor does not say that the more simple a hypothesis, the better."

"Today, we think of the principle of parsimony as a heuristic device. We don't assume that the simpler theory is correct and the more complex one false. We know from experience that more often than not the theory that requires more complicated machinations is wrong. Until proved otherwise, the more complex theory competing with a simpler explanation should be put on the back burner, but not thrown onto the trash heap of history until proven false.

"While these two facets of simplicity are frequently conflated, it is important to treat them as distinct. One reason for doing so is that considerations of parsimony and of elegance typically pull in different directions. Postulating extra entities may allow a theory to be formulated more simply, while reducing the ontology of a theory may only be possible at the price of making it syntactically more complex."
Algorithmic information theory
Assume a can opener
Chekhov's gun
Common sense
Conjunction fallacy
Cladistics
Eliminative materialism
Explanatory power
Falsifiability
Framing (social sciences)
Greedy reductionism
Hanlon's razor
Hitchens's razor
Inductive probability
KISS principle
McNamara fallacy
Metaphysical naturalism
Minimum description length
Minimum message length
Newton's flaming laser sword
Philosophy of science
Principle of least astonishment
Pseudoscience
Rationalism
Razor (philosophy)
Regress argument
Scientific method
Scientific reductionism
Scientific skepticism
Simplicity
Sparse Matrix
Spherical cow
List of catchphrases
List of political catchphrases
List of exclamations by Robin
Category:Catchphrases
Anti-proverb
Blend word
Blurb
Buzzword
Cliché
Clickbait
Dord
Earworm
Eggcorn
Jabberwocky
Meme
Mondegreen
Neologism
Proverb
Portmanteau
Set phrase
Slogan
Sound bite
Snowclone
Trademark look
Idiom
The fixed words of the proverbs (in orange) again form a catena each time.
The adjective nitty-gritty and the adverb always are not part of the respective proverb and their appearance does not interrupt the fixed words of the proverb.
A caveat concerning the catena-based analysis of idioms concerns their status in the lexicon.
Idioms are lexical items, which means they are stored as catenae in the lexicon.
In the actual syntax, however, some idioms can be broken up by various functional constructions.
The catena-based analysis of idioms provides a basis for an understanding of meaning compositionality.
The Principle of Compositionality can in fact be maintained. Units of meaning are being assigned to catenae, whereby many of these catenae are not constituents.
Adage
Catena (linguistics)
Chengyu
Cliché
Collocation
Comprehension of Idioms
Dependency grammar
Double negative
Figure of speech
Idiom in English language
List of idioms in the English language
Principle of compositionality

phrases.org.uk Gary Martin The Phrase Finder
phrases.org.uk 'break-a-leg'
Online English idioms dictionary.
Online cross-language idioms dictionary in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
List of 19th-century English-language idioms
Siamese twins (linguistics)
Wiktionary:Appendix:English idioms
idiom
Cliché
Archetype
Bromide (language)
Catch-phrase
Figure of speech
Idiom
Kitsch
List of English idioms on Wiktionary
List of film clichés
Meme
Platitude
Siamese twins (linguistics)
Slogan
Snowclone
Speech
Stereotype
Stock character
Category:Tropes