Table of Contents
Definition of Empirical Evidence
(noun) Data gained through observation or experimentation.
Example of Empirical Evidence
- Ethnographic observations of a social scene.
Empirical Evidence Pronunciation
Syllabification: em·pir·i·cal ev·i·dence
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /im-pIR-i-kuhl Ev-uh-duhns/
- British English – /im-pIr-i-kuhl E-vi-duhns/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˌɛmˈpɪrɪkəl ˈɛvədəns/
- British English – /ɛmˈpɪrɪkəl ˈɛvɪdəns/
Usage Notes
- Empirical evidence is discovered through empirical research.
- Also called:
- empirical data
- empirical knowledge
- sense experience
Related Quotation
- “For essentialists, race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, and social class identify significant, empirically verifiable differences among people. From the essentialist perspective, each of the these exist apart from any social processes; they are objective categories of real differences among people” (Rosenblum and Travis 2012:3).
Related Video
Additional Information
- Qualitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Quantitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “empirical” and “evidence” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
Related Terms
- control group
- correlation
- data
- experimentation
- field research
- statistics
- study
- survey
- systematic
- typology
- validity
Reference
Rosenblum, Karen Elaine, and Toni-Michelle Travis. 2012. The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Works Consulted
Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.
Macionis, John. 2012. Sociology. 14th ed. Boston: Pearson.
Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).
Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. 1997. New York: Random House.
Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Thorpe, Christopher, Chris Yuill, Mitchell Hobbs, Sarah Tomley, and Marcus Weeks. 2015. The Sociology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. London: Dorling Kindersley.
Turner, Bryan S., ed. 2006. The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
Cite the Definition of Empirical Evidence
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “empirical evidence.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved February 9, 2025 (https://sociologydictionary.org/empirical-evidence/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
empirical evidence. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/empirical-evidence/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “empirical evidence.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed February 9, 2025. https://sociologydictionary.org/empirical-evidence/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“empirical evidence.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. <https://sociologydictionary.org/empirical-evidence/>.