Adoption of the simplest explanation for an observation. Also stinginess or frugality in regards to economics and finance.
Vanguard must spend a lot of money on printing and mailing its statements, because of the extrapaper involved. Undoubtedly, that was a tough decision for the company, which is known for its parsimony
The Principle "of parsimony" infers that a phenomena can be explained best with the simplest hypothesis that accounts for all the evidence. Since we can only tell the difference between something that is true and something that is false, by inferring our own observations and using the general rule to make a guess, adding entities to a hypothesis that are not accounted for by evidence results in a hypothesis that is not parsimonious and less believable than prior.
This is referred to and explained in Occam's Razor, which follows the same basic principle.
The word may also be used to infer simplicity, or the state of a hypothesis in which it explains a phenomenon using entities suggested by evidence, and no absolutely more.
"Your hypothesis for insert phenomena, i.e.gravitational effects derived from atomic warp of spacetime was fine until you added entity to it, we have no evidence for that, you'rejust making stuff up, we observed the electromagnetic fluctuation before in CERN, why do you need to make it more complex, just do the math and see if it works, trust me it seems accurate enough already. Just apply the Principle of parsimony!"
An allowance for support made under court order and given usually by one person to his or her former lover or live-in companion after they have separated. You don't need a ring on your finger to get half ladies.
A monthly bribe dat you hafta pay a shamelessly-opportunistic techno-geek for him to let you use his special universal-playback VCR to watch your UK-formatted VHS videotapes.
I alwaysmakestandard NTSC-formatted DVD copies of foreign-encoded videotapes so that I can keep my PALimony payments to a minimum.