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Bertrand's paradox

Bertrand's paradox proper noun: a problem within the classical interpretation of probability theory, illustrating how the principle of indifference may not produce definite, well-defined results for probabilities if it is applied uncritically when the domain of possibilities is infinite.

Proper noun

Bertrand's paradox

  1. A problem within the classical interpretation of probability theory, illustrating how the principle of indifference may not produce definite, well-defined results for probabilities if it is applied uncritically when the domain of possibilities is infinite.
  2. A hypothetical phenomenon where if the number of firms producing a product goes from one to two or more selling identical products with identical manufacturing costs, the price would be expected to decrease from the high price which one monopolistic firm would charge to a competitive at-cost price, if consumers choose which product to buy based solely on price and the firms try to undercut each other.

Origin of Bertrand's paradox

Named after Joseph Bertrand, French mathematician.

Questions about Bertrand's paradox

What does Bertrand's paradox mean?
Bertrand's paradox means a problem within the classical interpretation of probability theory, illustrating how the principle of indifference may not produce definite, well-defined results for probabilities if it is applied uncritically when the domain of possibilities is infinite.
What part of speech is Bertrand's paradox?
Bertrand's paradox is a proper noun.

Words near Bertrand's paradox in the dictionary

  1. Bertones
  2. Bertons
  3. bertossaite
  4. bertram
  5. Bertrand
  6. Bertrand's paradox
  7. Bertrand's postulate
  8. Bertrand's reagent
  9. Bertrand-Chebyshev theorem
  10. Bertrand-Edgeworth model
  11. bertrandite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Bertrand's paradox (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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