Dirichlet

American  

[dir-i-kley, dee-ree-kley] / ˌdɪr ɪˈkleɪ, ˌdi riˈkleɪ /

noun

1. Peter Gustav Lejeune 1805–59, German mathematician.

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Dirichlet British  

/ diriˈkleː /

noun

1. Peter Gustav Lejeune (ˈpeːtər ˈɡʊstaf ləˈʒœn). 1805–59, German mathematician, noted for his work on number theory and calculus

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Example Sentences

For this, you need nothing more than the “pigeonhole principle,” also called “Dirichlet’s principle.”

From Scientific American

The pigeonhole principle is usually attributed to Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, who lived about 200 years after Leurechon.

From Scientific American

Holmes, I., Harris, K. & Quince, C. Dirichlet multinomial mixtures: generative models for microbial metagenomics.

From Nature

This bit of common sense, sometimes termed the pigeonhole or Dirichlet drawer principle, can occasionally be used to derive claims that are not so obvious.

From Literature

To help explain what the researchers were doing — their study involved something called a “Dirichlet process Gaussian Mixture Model” — I called the lead author, Patrick Shafto.

From Seattle Times