adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A measurement or result achieved by empirical means.

Adjective

1. 1
   Pertaining to or based on experience, as opposed to theory.

   "The lengths were calculated according to the empirical rules of the trade."

2. 2
   Pertaining to, derived from, or testable by observations made using the physical senses or using instruments which extend the senses.
3. 3
   Verifiable by means of scientific experimentation.

   "demonstrable with empirical evidence"

Adjective

1. 1
   derived from experiment and observation rather than theory wordnet
2. 2
   relying on medical quackery wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

experientialexperimentalempirica posteriorianecdotalanimist

Antonyms

All antonyms

abstractanecdotalnonempiricaltheoretical

Example

More examples

"Grammar is an empirical science, not a theoretical one."

Etymology

From empiric + -al.

Related phrases

empirical dataempirical egoempirical formulaempirical researchempirical rulenon-empirical egoanecdotal evidencetrial and error

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.