"tragedy of the commons" meaning in English

See tragedy of the commons in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: tragedies of the commons [plural]
Etymology: Reportedly coined in 1968 by U.S. ecologist Garrett Hardin. Head templates: {{en-noun|tragedies of the commons}} tragedy of the commons (plural tragedies of the commons)
  1. (ecology, economics, politics, 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. Wikipedia link: tragedy of the commons Categories (topical): Ecology, Economics, Politics Related terms: anticommons, commons, free rider, let George do it, public good Translations (tragedy of the commons): 公地悲劇 (Chinese Mandarin), 公地悲剧 (gōngdì bēijù) (Chinese Mandarin), tragedie van de meent [feminine] (Dutch), yhteismaan ongelma (Finnish), tragédie des biens communs [feminine] (French), Tragik der Allmende (obsolet: Allmende) [feminine] (German), Tragödie des Allgemeinguts [feminine] (German), Tragik des Gemeinguts [feminine] (German), tragedia dei beni comuni (Italian), tragedija zajedničkog dobra [feminine] (Serbo-Croatian), allmänningens dilemma [neuter] (Swedish), allmänningarnas tragedi [common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-tragedy_of_the_commons-en-noun-R0oCS6aF Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Topics: biology, ecology, economics, government, natural-sciences, politics, science, sciences

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for tragedy of the commons meaning in English (4.6kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Reportedly coined in 1968 by U.S. ecologist Garrett Hardin.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tragedies of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "tragedies of the commons"
      },
      "expansion": "tragedy of the commons (plural tragedies of the commons)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ecology",
          "orig": "en:Ecology",
          "parents": [
            "Biology",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Economics",
          "orig": "en:Economics",
          "parents": [
            "Social sciences",
            "Sciences",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Politics",
          "orig": "en:Politics",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1995 May 7, Timothy Egan, “Let the Owner Beware”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-04",
          "text": "One theory, known as the tragedy of the commons, holds that people will exploit and abuse something in which they have no ownership stake.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 November 18, “Troubles as deep as the oceans lie ahead”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2012-07-04",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 April 18, Richard Stengel, “Editor's Letter: A World of Possibilities”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-02-04",
          "text": "The economist Elinor Ostrom, who is on our list this year, has written about the tragedy of the commons, which is the idea that self-interest can undermine the common good.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "id": "en-tragedy_of_the_commons-en-noun-R0oCS6aF",
      "links": [
        [
          "ecology",
          "ecology"
        ],
        [
          "economics",
          "economics"
        ],
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
        ],
        [
          "unmanaged",
          "unmanaged"
        ],
        [
          "share",
          "share"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "unintended",
          "unintended"
        ],
        [
          "ruin",
          "ruin"
        ],
        [
          "total",
          "total"
        ],
        [
          "consumption",
          "consumption"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "social criticism",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ecology, economics, politics, 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."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "anticommons"
        },
        {
          "word": "commons"
        },
        {
          "word": "free rider"
        },
        {
          "word": "let George do it"
        },
        {
          "word": "public good"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "biology",
        "ecology",
        "economics",
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      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "word": "公地悲劇"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "gōngdì bēijù",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "word": "公地悲剧"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "tragedie van de meent"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "word": "yhteismaan ongelma"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "tragédie des biens communs"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Tragik der Allmende (obsolet: Allmende)"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Tragödie des Allgemeinguts"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Tragik des Gemeinguts"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "word": "tragedia dei beni comuni"
        },
        {
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "tragedija zajedničkog dobra"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "allmänningens dilemma"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "allmänningarnas tragedi"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "tragedy of the commons"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tragedy of the commons"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Reportedly coined in 1968 by U.S. ecologist Garrett Hardin.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tragedies of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "tragedies of the commons"
      },
      "expansion": "tragedy of the commons (plural tragedies of the commons)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "anticommons"
    },
    {
      "word": "commons"
    },
    {
      "word": "free rider"
    },
    {
      "word": "let George do it"
    },
    {
      "word": "public good"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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        "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Ecology",
        "en:Economics",
        "en:Politics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1995 May 7, Timothy Egan, “Let the Owner Beware”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-04",
          "text": "One theory, known as the tragedy of the commons, holds that people will exploit and abuse something in which they have no ownership stake.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 November 18, “Troubles as deep as the oceans lie ahead”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2012-07-04",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 April 18, Richard Stengel, “Editor's Letter: A World of Possibilities”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-02-04",
          "text": "The economist Elinor Ostrom, who is on our list this year, has written about the tragedy of the commons, which is the idea that self-interest can undermine the common good.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ecology",
          "ecology"
        ],
        [
          "economics",
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        ],
        [
          "politics",
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        ],
        [
          "unmanaged",
          "unmanaged"
        ],
        [
          "share",
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        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "unintended",
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        [
          "ruin",
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          "total"
        ],
        [
          "consumption",
          "consumption"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "social criticism",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ecology, economics, politics, 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."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "biology",
        "ecology",
        "economics",
        "government",
        "natural-sciences",
        "politics",
        "science",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "tragedy of the commons"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "word": "公地悲劇"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "gōngdì bēijù",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "word": "公地悲剧"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "tragedie van de meent"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "word": "yhteismaan ongelma"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "tragédie des biens communs"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Tragik der Allmende (obsolet: Allmende)"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Tragödie des Allgemeinguts"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Tragik des Gemeinguts"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "word": "tragedia dei beni comuni"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "tragedija zajedničkog dobra"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "allmänningens dilemma"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "tragedy of the commons",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "allmänningarnas tragedi"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tragedy of the commons"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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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