invisible hand
invisible hand noun: a metaphor for the principle that in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest also tends to promote the good of his community as a whole.
Noun
invisible hand (plural invisible hands)
- A metaphor for the principle that in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest also tends to promote the good of his community as a whole.
- By preferring the ſupport of domeſtick to that of foreign induſtry he intends only his own ſecurity; and by directing that induſtry in ſuch a manner as its produce may be of the greateſt value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other caſes, led by an inviſible hand to...1776 March 9, Adam Smith, “Of Restraints upon the Importation of Such Goods from Foreign Countries as can be Produced at Home”, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. […]...
- When Lucasians postulate that prices are ‘flexible’ they seem to mean that we can observe only Walrasian market-clearing prices. There is no nonsense here about the invisible hand doing any noticeable and comprehensible work: its task is accomplished by definition.1982, Frank Hahn, Monetary and Inflation, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, page 48
invisible hand meaning in Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese
invisible hand in Tamil
- முகமறியாத் தலையீடு, கட்புலப்படாத் தலையீடு, புலனாக உந்துசக்தி
invisible hand in Thai
- invisible hand
- กลไกที่ไม่เห็นประจักษ์
invisible hand in Vietnamese
- invisible hand
- bàn tay vô hình
Examples of invisible hand in a sentence
- In short, Smith understood that the invisible hand is often benign, but not always.2008 May 25, Robert H. Frank, “The Invisible Hand Is Shaking”, in New York Times, retrieved 14 Aug 2008:
- All will be uplifted by their god’s invisible hand. […]2014 July 29, George Monbiot, “The rich want us to believe their wealth is good for us all”, in The Guardian:
- As the science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson observed, when it comes to the environment, the invisible hand never picks up the check.2014 November 6, Rob Nixon, “Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’”, in New York Times:
Forms of invisible hand
| plural | invisible hands |
|---|
Origin of invisible hand
Coined by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith in 1776 in his book The Wealth of Nations.
Questions about invisible hand
- What does invisible hand mean?
- Invisible hand means a metaphor for the principle that in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest also tends to promote the good of his community as a whole.
- What is invisible hand in Tamil?
- Invisible hand in Tamil is முகமறியாத் தலையீடு, கட்புலப்படாத் தலையீடு, புலனாக உந்துசக்தி. See Invisible hand meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use invisible hand in a sentence?
- In short, Smith understood that the invisible hand is often benign, but not always.
- What part of speech is invisible hand?
- Invisible hand is a noun.
- What is the plural of invisible hand?
- The plural of invisible hand is invisible hands.
Words near invisible hand in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: invisible hand (page history and authors); invisible hand (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: “invisible hand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/invisible_hand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.