Empiric
//ɛmˈpɪɹɪk// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A member of a sect of ancient physicians who based their theories solely on experience. historical
- 2 Someone who is guided by empiricism; an empiricist.
- 3 Any unqualified or dishonest practitioner; a charlatan; a quack.
"An empiric oftentimes, and a silly chirurgeon, doth more strange cures than a rational physician."
Adjective
- 1 Empirical.
Adjective
- 1 derived from experiment and observation rather than theory wordnet
- 2 relying on medical quackery wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"An empiric oftentimes, and a silly chirurgeon, doth more strange cures than a rational physician."
Etymology
From Old French empirique, from Latin empiricus, from Ancient Greek ἐμπειρικός (empeirikós, “experienced”), from ἐμπειρία (empeiría, “experience, mere experience or practice without knowledge, especially in medicine, empiricism”), from ἔμπειρος (émpeiros, “experienced or practised in”), from ἐν (en, “in”) + πεῖρα (peîra, “a trial, experiment, attempt”). Not related to empire.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.