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Definition of "empiric" [em•pir•ic]

  • One who is guided by practical experience rather than precepts or theory. (noun)
  • An unqualified or dishonest practitioner; a charlatan. (noun)
  • Empirical. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "empiric" in a sentence
  • "Charlatan is an opprobrious term, but "empiric" literally means one who follows experience instead of dogma, and should therefore be an honorable designation; but as the medical profession has always been dogmatic, and therefore hostile to empiricism, or fidelity to experience, it has made empiricism an opprobrious term."
  • "When she spikes a temperature and her heart races, we send blood cultures and give empiric antibiotics that she probably does not really need."
  • "Congratulations to all who worked so hard and so long to bring marriage equality to the empiric state: those who stood vigil in Albany, those who lobbied the halls, those who changed their minds, those who wrote checks, those on whose shoulders this victory stands."