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Original · left

Pruning (gardening)

Trimming away dead, diseased, or overgrown branches and stems from shrubs or trees.

First in use: ancient / pre-modern
Duplicate · right

Pruning (neural networks)

Removing redundant, zero-value, or low-impact parameter weights from a trained network to compress memory size and speed inference.

First in use: c. 1989

Pruning / Pruning (gardening) / Pruning (neural networks)

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Duplicate share · 12 mo—
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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Rose bushes vs. sparse weights.

Which meaning of Pruning is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Pruning (gardening) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Pruning (neural networks) arrived in 1989. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Pruning (gardening)Pruning (neural networks)
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

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The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · ancient / pre-modern

Pruning (gardening)

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Duplicate · c. 1989

Pruning (neural networks)

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More duplicated terms

AI & machine learning