Word.ws English Dictionary

Jevons paradox

/ˈdʒɛvənz paɹədɒks/

Jevons paradox proper noun: the proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource.

Proper noun

the Jevons paradox

  1. The proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource.
    • One well-known example is electricity usage, where the Jevons paradox explains how making appliances more energy efficient can backfire by stimulating demand.2019 November 1, Oliver Burkeman, “Not enough hours in the day? Well, finding more may not help”, in The Guardian

Forms of Jevons paradox

alternative formJevons' paradox

Origin of Jevons paradox

Named after English economist William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882).

Questions about Jevons paradox

What does Jevons paradox mean?
Jevons paradox means the proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource.
What part of speech is Jevons paradox?
Jevons paradox is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Jevons paradox?
Jevons paradox is pronounced /ˈdʒɛvənz paɹədɒks/.

Words near Jevons paradox in the dictionary

  1. Jevg
  2. Jevgs
  3. Jevington
  4. Jevonian
  5. Jevons
  6. Jevons paradox
  7. Jevons' paradox
  8. Jevonsian
  9. jew
  10. Jew bail
  11. Jew City

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Jevons paradox (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Jevons paradox.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jevons_paradox. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.