1. a person who advocates or practices operationalism, the philosophical view that scientific concepts should be defined by the operations or procedures used to measure or test them
Usage: philosophy of science; formal

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of operationalism or operationalists
Usage: philosophy of science; formal

Examples

• The operationalist argues that 'temperature' should be defined by how we measure it with a thermometer.
• An operationalist approach to physics emphasizes measurable procedures over abstract definitions.
• The operationalist philosopher rejected definitions that could not be tied to concrete experimental operations.
• Her operationalist framework transformed how the team designed their experiments.
• Operationalist thinking influenced mid-20th-century philosophy of science significantly.