Word.ws English Dictionary

streetlight effect

streetlight effect noun: a kind of observational bias whereby people only search for something where it is easiest to look.

Noun

streetlight effect (plural streetlight effects)

  1. A kind of observational bias whereby people only search for something where it is easiest to look.

Forms of streetlight effect

pluralstreetlight effects

Origin of streetlight effect

An allusion to an old joke in which a drunkard searches for his keys (lost elsewhere) under a streetlight because that is where the light is.

Questions about streetlight effect

What does streetlight effect mean?
Streetlight effect means a kind of observational bias whereby people only search for something where it is easiest to look.
What part of speech is streetlight effect?
Streetlight effect is a noun.
What is the plural of streetlight effect?
The plural of streetlight effect is streetlight effects.

Words near streetlight effect in the dictionary

  1. streetlessness
  2. streetlet
  3. streetlets
  4. streetlife
  5. streetlight
  6. streetlight effect
  7. streetlighting
  8. streetlights
  9. streetlike
  10. streetling
  11. streetlings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: streetlight effect (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: “streetlight effect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/streetlight_effect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.