Word.ws English Dictionary

Thomson's lamp

Thomson's lamp proper noun: a hypothetical lamp in a philosophical paradox. The lamp is repeatedly turned on and off by means of a switch; at the end of this time period, regarded as the sum of an infinite series of intervals, it seems paradoxically that the lamp cannot be either on or off.

Proper noun

Thomson's lamp

  1. A hypothetical lamp in a philosophical paradox. The lamp is repeatedly turned on and off by means of a switch; at the end of this time period, regarded as the sum of an infinite series of intervals, it seems paradoxically that the lamp cannot be either on or off.

Origin of Thomson's lamp

The idea was devised in 1954 by British philosopher James F. Thomson.

Questions about Thomson's lamp

What does Thomson's lamp mean?
Thomson's lamp means a hypothetical lamp in a philosophical paradox. The lamp is repeatedly turned on and off by means of a switch; at the end of this time period, regarded as the sum of an infinite series of intervals, it seems paradoxically that the lamp cannot be either on or off.
What part of speech is Thomson's lamp?
Thomson's lamp is a proper noun.

Words near Thomson's lamp in the dictionary

  1. Thomson problem
  2. Thomson process
  3. Thomson's gazelle
  4. Thomson's gazelles
  5. Thomson's hypothesis
  6. Thomson's lamp
  7. Thomsonian
  8. Thomsonianism
  9. Thomsonians
  10. thomsonite
  11. thomsonites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Thomson's lamp (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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