Word.ws English Dictionary

tragedy of the commons

tragedy of the commons noun: a situation in which unmanaged use of a shared resource (such as the atmosphere or an ocean) by a number of participants results in the unintended ruin or total consumption of that resource.

Noun

tragedy of the commons (plural tragedies of the commons)

  1. (social criticism) A situation in which unmanaged use of a shared resource (such as the atmosphere or an ocean) by a number of participants results in the unintended ruin or total consumption of that resource.
    • One theory, known as the tragedy of the commons, holds that people will exploit and abuse something in which they have no ownership stake.1995 May 7, Timothy Egan, “Let the Owner Beware”, in New York Times, retrieved 04 Jul 2012
    • Overfishing is the classic tragedy of the commons. Since no single nation "owns" the high seas, they exploit it without restraint and without thought to sustainability.2010 November 18, “Troubles as deep as the oceans lie ahead”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 04 Jul 2012

tragedy of the commons meaning in Tamil

tragedy of the commons in Tamil

பொதுமக்கள் துயரம்

Forms of tragedy of the commons

pluraltragedies of the commons

Origin of tragedy of the commons

Coined by American ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968.

Questions about tragedy of the commons

What does tragedy of the commons mean?
Tragedy of the commons means a situation in which unmanaged use of a shared resource (such as the atmosphere or an ocean) by a number of participants results in the unintended ruin or total consumption of that resource.
What is tragedy of the commons in Tamil?
Tragedy of the commons in Tamil is பொதுமக்கள் துயரம். See Tragedy of the commons meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is tragedy of the commons?
Tragedy of the commons is a noun.
What is the plural of tragedy of the commons?
The plural of tragedy of the commons is tragedies of the commons.

Words near tragedy of the commons in the dictionary

  1. tragedizes
  2. tragedizing
  3. tragedy
  4. tragedy mask
  5. tragedy masks
  6. tragedy of the commons
  7. tragelaph
  8. tragelaphi
  9. tragelaphic
  10. tragelaphine
  11. tragelaphines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tragedy of the commons (page history and authors); tragedy of the commons (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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