Wirth's law in English

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{
  "etymology_text": "Named after computer scientist Niklaus Wirth, who discussed it in his 1995 article \"A Plea for Lean Software\".",
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        "The observation that, over time, software gets slower more rapidly than hardware gets faster."
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        "(computer science) The observation that, over time, software gets slower more rapidly than hardware gets faster."
      ],
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        "engineering",
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        "natural-sciences",
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Wirth's law"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "etymology_text": "Named after computer scientist Niklaus Wirth, who discussed it in his 1995 article \"A Plea for Lean Software\".",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Wirth's law",
      "name": "en-prop"
    }
  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
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        "English eponyms",
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        "English multiword terms",
        "English proper nouns",
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        "en:Computer science"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The observation that, over time, software gets slower more rapidly than hardware gets faster."
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          "computer science",
          "computer science"
        ],
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          "software",
          "software"
        ],
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        [
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          "hardware"
        ],
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      ],
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        "(computer science) The observation that, over time, software gets slower more rapidly than hardware gets faster."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computer",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "science",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Wirth's law"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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"Wirth's law" meaning in English

Proper name