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if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail proverb: with limited tools, single-minded people apply them inappropriately or indiscriminately.

Proverb

if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

  1. With limited tools, single-minded people apply them inappropriately or indiscriminately.
  2. Individuals deeply versed in a particular subject or proficient in the use of a specific tool may display confirmation bias, viewing it as relevant to all situations.

Synonyms of if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Origin of if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Likely traditional. In this form, perhaps from Abraham Maslow, The Psychology of Science, 1966, page 15 and his earlier book Abraham H. Maslow (1962), Toward a Psychology of Being: : I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. Similar concept by Abraham Kaplan, The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioral Science, 1964, page 28: : I call it the law of the instrument, and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. Labeled "Baruch's Observation" (after Bernard Baruch) in The Complete Murphy's Law: A Definitive Collection (1991) by Arthur Bloch. Also often attributed, without citation, to Mark Twain (for example in Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind, page 9).

Questions about if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

What does if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail mean?
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail means with limited tools, single-minded people apply them inappropriately or indiscriminately.
What part of speech is if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail?
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail is a proverb.

Words near if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail in the dictionary

  1. Iezzi
  2. Iezzis
  3. if
  4. if a day
  5. if all else fails
  6. if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail
  7. if all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail
  8. if and only if
  9. if and when
  10. if anything
  11. if applicable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail (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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