Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

bikeshedding

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables
bikeshed-ding
IPA
24
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Futile expenditure of time and energy in discussion of marginal technical issues.

Uncountable

noun

Procrastination.

Uncountable

verb

present participle and gerund of bikeshed

Example Sentences

Etymology

From bikeshed + -ing. The term was coined as a metaphor to illuminate Parkinson's Law of Triviality. Parkinson observed that a committee whose job is to approve plans for a nuclear power plant may spend the majority of its time on relatively unimportant but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for the staff bikeshed, while neglecting the design of the power plant itself, which is far more important but also far more difficult to criticize constructively. It was popularized in the Berkeley Software Distribution community by Poul-Henning Kamp and has spread from there to the software industry at large.

Word Breakdown

Usage

Inflected Forms

bike-shedding (alternative)

Phrases

yak shaving when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp

Frequently Paired Words

yak shaving when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp

Questions

What does bikeshedding mean?
Futile expenditure of time and energy in discussion of marginal technical issues.
Where does bikeshedding come from?
From bikeshed + -ing. The term was coined as a metaphor to illuminate Parkinson's Law of Triviality. Parkinson observed that a committee whose job is to approve plans for a nuclear power plant may spend the majority of its time on relatively unimportant but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for the staff bikeshed, while neglecting the design of the power plant itself, which is far more important but also far more difficult to criticize constructively. It was popularized in the Berkeley Software Distribution community by Poul-Henning Kamp and has spread from there to the software industry at large.

How to pronounce bikeshedding

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “bikeshedding”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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  4. Repeat and practice — Say “bikeshedding” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.