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Chinese postman problem

Chinese postman problem noun: the problem of finding the shortest closed path or circuit that visits every edge of a (connected) undirected graph.

Noun

Chinese postman problem (plural Chinese postman problems)

  1. The problem of finding the shortest closed path or circuit that visits every edge of a (connected) undirected graph.

Forms of Chinese postman problem

pluralChinese postman problems

Origin of Chinese postman problem

Originally studied by the Chinese mathematician Kwan Mei-Ko in 1960, whose Chinese paper was translated into English in 1962. The name "Chinese postman problem" was coined in his honour, and is varyingly ascribed to Alan J. Goldman or Jack Edmonds, both of the US National Bureau of Standards.

Questions about Chinese postman problem

What does Chinese postman problem mean?
Chinese postman problem means the problem of finding the shortest closed path or circuit that visits every edge of a (connected) undirected graph.
What part of speech is Chinese postman problem?
Chinese postman problem is a noun.
What is the plural of Chinese postman problem?
The plural of Chinese postman problem is Chinese postman problems.

Words near Chinese postman problem in the dictionary

  1. Chinese plums
  2. Chinese pond heron
  3. Chinese pond herons
  4. Chinese pond turtle
  5. Chinese pond turtles
  6. Chinese postman problem
  7. Chinese postman problems
  8. Chinese preserving melon
  9. Chinese preserving melons
  10. Chinese primrose
  11. Chinese pug

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Chinese postman problem (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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Cite this entry: “Chinese postman problem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chinese_postman_problem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.