Word.ws English Dictionary

no free lunch theorem

no free lunch theorem proper noun: a theorem that implies that no single machine learning algorithm is universally the best-performing algorithm for all problems.

Proper noun

the no free lunch theorem

  1. (artificial intelligence) A theorem that implies that no single machine learning algorithm is universally the best-performing algorithm for all problems.

Origin of no free lunch theorem

Derives from the phrase there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Questions about no free lunch theorem

What does no free lunch theorem mean?
No free lunch theorem means a theorem that implies that no single machine learning algorithm is universally the best-performing algorithm for all problems.
What part of speech is no free lunch theorem?
No free lunch theorem is a proper noun.

Words near no free lunch theorem in the dictionary

  1. no fixed abode
  2. no flies on
  3. no fly list
  4. no fly lists
  5. no free lunch
  6. no free lunch theorem
  7. no frills
  8. no fun
  9. no fun at parties
  10. No Fun City
  11. no further action

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: no free lunch theorem (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: “no free lunch theorem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/no_free_lunch_theorem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.