empirical
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
About or based on experience.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehmpihrihkuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɛmˈpɪɹɪkəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Pertaining to or based on experience, as opposed to theory.
Pertaining to, derived from, or testable by observations made using the physical senses or using instruments which extend the senses.
philosophy of science
Verifiable by means of scientific experimentation.
noun
A measurement or result achieved by empirical means.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Academic
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Pertaining to or based on experience, as opposed to theory.
Used this way, empirical is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use empirical
- “An empirical basis for an ethical theory.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Based on experience; empirical.
Relating to or resulting from experience.
Relating to or based on experiment.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An empirical search for knowledge.
A chemical formula showing the ratio of elements in a compound rather than the total number of atoms.
In an empirical manner.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: pertaining to or based on experience
Antonyms
Sense: pertaining to or based on experience
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.