Word.ws English Dictionary

Hitchens' razor

Hitchens' razor proper noun: a philosophical razor stating that what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

Proper noun

Hitchens' razor

  1. A philosophical razor stating that what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
    • However, the limitations of a storytelling project such as this seems to be that the notion of validation is unachievable mainly because it falls short of the so-called 'Hitchens's razor': that 'that which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence'.2015 October 23, Cillian McGrattan, The Politics of Trauma and Peace-Building: Lessons from Northern Ireland, Abington; New York: Routledge, →ISBN, page 2

Forms of Hitchens' razor

alternative formHitchens's razor

Origin of Hitchens' razor

After Christopher Hitchens' translation of a Latin law code precept, "Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur".

Questions about Hitchens' razor

What does Hitchens' razor mean?
Hitchens' razor means a philosophical razor stating that what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
What part of speech is Hitchens' razor?
Hitchens' razor is a proper noun.

Words near Hitchens' razor in the dictionary

  1. hitchelled
  2. hitchelling
  3. hitchels
  4. Hitchen
  5. Hitchens
  6. Hitchens' razor
  7. Hitchens's razor
  8. hitcher
  9. hitchers
  10. hitches
  11. hitches one's wagon to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Hitchens' razor (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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