Empiriska

Empiriska is a Swedish adjectival form used to describe knowledge, data, or methods that are empirical. The base form is empirisk, and empiriska is the plural form used before plural nouns (for example, empiriska data, empiriska studier). The term denotes information or conclusions derived from observation, measurement, or experimentation rather than from theory alone. In scholarly writing, empirical work is often contrasted with theoretical or deductive approaches.

Common contexts for empiriska include empirical data, empirical studies, empirical evidence, and empirical research. The adjective signals that findings are based on observed phenomena or experimental results, and it is widely used across the natural sciences, social sciences, medicine, and related fields.

Etymology traceably links empiriska to the Latin empiricus, meaning experienced, via the French empiriques and related linguistic pathways into Swedish. The concept aligns with the broader idea of empiricism, which emphasizes knowledge obtained through experience and observation.

In other Scandinavian languages, cognate forms exist as well (for example, in Norwegian and Danish, similar endings are used: empirisk and empiriske). The term is part of standard scientific and academic language in Swedish, helping to distinguish evidence and conclusions grounded in real-world data from those based purely on theory or abstraction.