Word.ws English Dictionary

Chesterton's fence

Chesterton's fence noun: the principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood.

Noun

Chesterton's fence (uncountable)

  1. (public policy) The principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood.

Origin of Chesterton's fence

From a parable by G.K. Chesterton, suggesting that one should not remove a fence until one learns why it was erected in the first place.

Questions about Chesterton's fence

What does Chesterton's fence mean?
Chesterton's fence means the principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood.
What part of speech is Chesterton's fence?
Chesterton's fence is a noun.

Words near Chesterton's fence in the dictionary

  1. chestermanite
  2. Chestermans
  3. Chesters
  4. Chesterton
  5. Chesterton and Kingston
  6. Chesterton's fence
  7. Chestertonian
  8. Chestertonians
  9. Chestertons
  10. Chestertown
  11. chestfed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Chesterton's fence (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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