Meanings
- human sciencesThe principle, especially in 20th-century empiricism, that a statement has meaning if, and only if, either it can be verified by means of empirical observations or it is logically true by definition.
It is generally agreed among most advocates of the Verifiability Principle that analytic and empirical statements exhaust the class of cognitively meaningful statements.
1962, Marvin Zimmerman, “The Status of the Verifiability Principle”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 22, number 3, page 3341 more example
Carnap, for example, invoked the verifiability principle to argue that the problem of the external world was a 'pseudo-problem'—for neither the proposition 'there is an external world' nor its negation is verifiable in experience, so both are meaningless.
2001, Samir Okasha, “Verificationism, Realism and Scepticism”, in Erkenntnis, volume 55, number 3, page 376Synonyms: criterion of verifiability, criterion of verification, principle of verifiability, principle of verification, verifiability criterion, verification criterion, verification principle
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe principle, especially in 20th-century empiricism, that a statement has meaning if, and only if, either it can be verified by means of empirical observations or it is logically true by definition.
Origin
Coined by the philosopher Alfred Jules Ayer c. 1936.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
verifiability principle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/verifiability%20principle
“verifiability principle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/verifiability%20principle. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “verifiability principle,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/verifiability%20principle.
Source: verifiability principle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.