operational definition

Noun

 * 1) A showing of something — such as a variable, term, or object — in terms of the specific process or set of validation tests used to determine its presence and quantity.
 * 2) * 1942, George A. Lundberg, Operational Definitions in the Social Sciences:
 * The position of certain recent publications is examined and criticized because they seem to imply (a) that under some circumstances ambiguous concepts are more useful than precise ones and (b) that operational difinitions are of limited usefulness in sociology because of their dependence upon quantitative characteristics, whereas some items referred to by sociological concepts are "essentially qualitative in nature." Both assumptions are here questioned.
 * 1) * 1943, Stuart C. Dodd and Ethel Shanas, Operational Definitions Operationally Defined:
 * Those sociologists who advocate greater use of operational definitions have been challenged to define "operational definition" operationally. This paper attempts to meet that challenge.
 * 1) * 2017, Leonardo Bich & Sara Green, Is defining life pointless? Operational definitions at the frontiers of Biology:
 * By analysing the practical utility of definitions of life in scientific practice, we propose that definitions of life in these domains should  be  considered  in a non-standard and  weaker  sense,  as operational definitions. This  choice  of terminology  is  inspired  by  the  use  of  the  same  term  in  the  scientific literatures of Origins of Life and Synthetic Biology (e.g., Fleischaker, 1990; Luisi 1998). We use the term ‘operational’ in a wide sense, referring both to (1) the possibility to define something by means of operations (e.g., defining an entity by measuring or building it following a specific procedure), and (2) the idea that the contents of the definition (e.g., the conditions for life) can be operationalised for empirical research, that is, can be built, manipulated and tested in the laboratory.
 * 1) * 1943, Stuart C. Dodd and Ethel Shanas, Operational Definitions Operationally Defined:
 * Those sociologists who advocate greater use of operational definitions have been challenged to define "operational definition" operationally. This paper attempts to meet that challenge.
 * 1) * 2017, Leonardo Bich & Sara Green, Is defining life pointless? Operational definitions at the frontiers of Biology:
 * By analysing the practical utility of definitions of life in scientific practice, we propose that definitions of life in these domains should  be  considered  in a non-standard and  weaker  sense,  as operational definitions. This  choice  of terminology  is  inspired  by  the  use  of  the  same  term  in  the  scientific literatures of Origins of Life and Synthetic Biology (e.g., Fleischaker, 1990; Luisi 1998). We use the term ‘operational’ in a wide sense, referring both to (1) the possibility to define something by means of operations (e.g., defining an entity by measuring or building it following a specific procedure), and (2) the idea that the contents of the definition (e.g., the conditions for life) can be operationalised for empirical research, that is, can be built, manipulated and tested in the laboratory.

Translations

 * Czech: operacionální definice, operační definice