1. A philosophical or scientific approach that defines concepts and entities solely in terms of the operations or procedures used to measure, observe, or produce them.
Usage: philosophy of science; formal/technical
2. In physics, the doctrine that physical concepts have meaning only insofar as they can be defined by specific experimental operations or measurements.
Usage: physics; formal/technical

Examples

• Operationism in physics requires that any meaningful concept be tied to a concrete measurement procedure.
• The scientist adopted operationism, defining temperature only through the operations of a thermometer.
• Operationism challenges traditional definitions by insisting that meaning derives from experimental operations.
• Critics argue that operationism is too restrictive for theoretical physics.
• The philosophy of operationism influenced how scientists approached the definition of fundamental quantities.