How to Use empirically in a Sentence

empirically

adverb
  • If the idea seemed absurd then, the passage of time has only made it empirically so.
    Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker, 29 May 2022
  • When vibes match up to what is going on empirically in the economy, the world will be righted.
    Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Jan. 2024
  • This is the sort of dispute that can be settled empirically.
    Michelle Goldberg, Star Tribune, 9 Feb. 2021
  • The ultimate goal in fascist truth, then, is not to have the best, empirically viable facts.
    Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 28 Aug. 2023
  • That’s a bold statement that can’t be empirically proven, but my confidence is high in this matter.
    Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 23 Apr. 2023
  • Varnum took on one of the group’s pilot projects, which was to empirically answer one question: How will humankind react to the discovery of life off Earth?
    Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 16 Feb. 2018
  • And this is now a result that has built up empirically, parallel to the actual work of the government commission.
    Ivana Kottasová, CNN, 15 Apr. 2024
  • So there's no way to really track the prevalence or the number of incidents and look at it empirically, but there's a growing sense in the sports world that these incidents are becoming more common.
    Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 17 Mar. 2022
  • Even as the frequency of surgery increases, the patient pool is not yet large enough to know empirically what cuts down on complications or leads to satisfaction in the course of an entire life.
    New York Times, 10 May 2022
  • Most often, what is in question is not an empirically provable hypothesis such as whether witches exist or whether the sun orbits the Earth.
    Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 18 Feb. 2022
  • There was a story about women who are staying single getting richer in America on Bloomberg, and that is empirically false.
    Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Apr. 2024
  • But for the better part of the past decade, SNL has sucked empirically, emphatically, royally.
    Zak Jason, Wired, 21 May 2021
  • So some are questioning the tenet that observers can pool their measurements empirically.
    George Musser, Science | AAAS, 17 Aug. 2020
  • Which policies seem empirically most effective in fighting poverty is rather beside the point for these critics.
    Oren Cass, CNN, 15 Sep. 2022
  • The difficulty of isolating the effects of dreams has always made theories of dream function hard to test empirically.
    New York Times, 3 Nov. 2021
  • But the authors never empirically test any of their assumptions.
    Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2023
  • More than 80 percent of the ocean has yet to be mapped in high definition, and hardly any of it is being empirically monitored and measured regularly.
    Porter Fox, New York Times, 9 May 2023
  • Monastero Santa Rosa is empirically one of the most beautiful hotels on earth, made all the better for boasting one of the Amalfi Coast’s best wining and dining experiences.
    Lauren Mowery, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2022
  • When the going gets rough, blame the worker The paper, which is under peer review, empirically examines what determines an S&P 500 firm’s decision to mandate a return to office and what the consequences are—and aren’t.
    Jane Thier, Fortune, 13 Jan. 2024
  • The five steps for managers were empirically developed.
    Karina Ochis, Forbes, 4 May 2023
  • These foundations are empirically more likely to lead to the adoption of a process for innovation, which is then more likely to generate an innovative idea.
    Ted Ladd, Forbes, 9 Mar. 2023
  • But statistics show a glimpse of a safe and ethnically diverse city that some residents can empirically confirm.
    Alixel Cabrera, The Salt Lake Tribune, 13 Dec. 2021
  • This trend can be outlined empirically, using hard numbers.
    Wilfred Reilly, National Review, 29 Dec. 2023
  • In addition to his clinical work, my father was a researcher; his primary mission was to prove, empirically, the existence of the Freudian unconscious.
    Gillian Silverman, The New Yorker, 15 July 2023
  • By all accounts, the economy is empirically doing well.
    Dr. Marcus Collins, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2023
  • Known as negativity bias, this has been shown empirically across a variety of contexts.
    Hbs Working Knowledge, Forbes, 31 Aug. 2021
  • But Fryer’s real crime was his work empirically demonstrating that police do not kill blacks at a higher rate than other races, and that black students excel when faced with high expectations—challenges to the current shibboleths on race.
    Laurence H. Silberman, WSJ, 30 Sep. 2022
  • This is the idea that Wigner's predictions, based on his application of quantum theory, are empirically correct.
    Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, 23 Aug. 2021
  • The biggest questions facing the country do not fall comfortably along some left-right axis but instead require prudent and empirically effective leadership to address.
    Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 19 June 2023
  • Whether school police build trust and positive relations between law enforcement and students is also, at least empirically, unclear.
    Henry Gass, The Christian Science Monitor, 18 June 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'empirically.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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