Falsifiability
Etymology
From Latin "fallere" (to deceive), via "falsify." Karl Popper made it a criterion of demarcation in "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" (1934), arguing that a theory earns scientific status not by being provable but by risking refutation.
noun · /fawl-suh-fy-uh-BIL-ih-tee/
The property of a claim that some possible observation could prove it false, proposed as the mark of genuine science.
What it names
A handle for separating testable science from claims merely dressed up as science — reach for it when a theory seems able to explain any outcome whatsoever.
Example
“Every event happens for a reason” is unfalsifiable — no possible outcome could ever count against it, so it isn’t a scientific claim.
Related idea
Distinct from being empirical in general; a claim can sound evidence-based yet fail falsifiability if it is quietly compatible with every conceivable observation.