experience
Americannoun
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experiences
plural
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a particular instance of personally encountering or undergoing something.
My encounter with the bear in the woods was a frightening experience.
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the process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something.
business experience.
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the observing, encountering, or undergoing of things generally as they occur in the course of time.
to learn from experience; the range of human experience.
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knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone.
a man of experience.
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Philosophy. the totality of the cognitions given by perception; all that is perceived, understood, and remembered.
verb (used with object)
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experiences,
present (3rd person singular)
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experienced,
past participle, past
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experiencing
present participle
idioms
noun
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direct personal participation or observation; actual knowledge or contact
experience of prison life
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a particular incident, feeling, etc, that a person has undergone
an experience to remember
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accumulated knowledge, esp of practical matters
a man of experience
-
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the totality of characteristics, both past and present, that make up the particular quality of a person, place, or people
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the impact made on an individual by the culture of a people, nation, etc
the American experience
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philosophy
-
the content of a perception regarded as independent of whether the apparent object actually exists Compare sense datum
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the faculty by which a person acquires knowledge of contingent facts about the world, as contrasted with reason
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the totality of a person's perceptions, feelings, and memories
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verb
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to participate in or undergo
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to be emotionally or aesthetically moved by; feel
to experience beauty
Usage
What is another way to say experience? To experience something is to meet with it or feel it firsthand. How is experience different from undergo? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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preexperiencenoun
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reexperienceverb
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experienceableadjective
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experiencelessadjective
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postexperienceadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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experiencesimple
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experiencessimple
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have experiencedperfect
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has experiencedperfect
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am experiencingprogressive
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are experiencingprogressive
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is experiencingprogressive
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have been experiencingperfect progressive
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has been experiencingperfect progressive
Past
-
experiencedsimple
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had experiencedperfect
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was experiencingprogressive
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were experiencingprogressive
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had been experiencingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of experience
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, Middle French, from Latin experientia, equivalent to experient- (stem of experiēns, past participle of experīrī “to try, test”; see ex- 1, peril) + -ia noun suffix; see -ence
Explanation
If you experience something, you go through an unusual or exciting event. If you're experiencing the world's loopiest roller coaster, you'd better hope that the amusement park doesn't experience a power outage. Sometimes experience means accumulated knowledge and sometimes it refers to a single spectacular event. If you have experience in cooking, you have worked in a restaurant before. Learning by experience is a method of acquiring knowledge by doing and not by reading. On the other hand, when you come back from summer camp, your mom will want to hear about your experiences. And white-water rafting is quite an unforgettable experience.
Vocabulary lists containing experience
"Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto
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Michelle Obama's Speech at the 2016 DNC
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Schooled
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Analysts have seen Chakravarthy’s selection as a signal that Adobe will focus more closely on its customer experience orchestration business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
The lack of transparency, the minimal communication and the demand for fealty is all that younger reporters know — and those with experience who know better are slowly squeezed out.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
He admitted that he had not realized how deeply his children had been affected by the event itself and by his experience of it.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
While the rainfall will be welcome, it is possible the UK could experience another round of "weather whiplash" where the pattern moves from one extreme to another.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Mama Woof seemed dazed by the experience, but thanks to the nourishing borscht and some tasty sandwich meats offered by the children, she was soon quite herself again.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
The experiences and reflections vary by schools and within schools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Research has consistently shown that parents often hesitate to share their traumatic experiences with their children.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
Those experiences shaped their leadership but ultimately instilled an intensely personal approach to building Goruck that’s rooted in a special forces ethos of putting team first.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
At the event, Democratic and Republican politicians shared their experiences as parents who have seen firsthand how technology affects children.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
“What a beautiful mouse!” said Miss K, who was young and enthusiastic and eager to give her pupils learning experiences.
From "Ralph S. Mouse" by Beverly Cleary
By comparison, mice receiving engineered T cells made from mature donor cells experienced only partial tumor control and developed graft-versus-host disease.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
No one should have to endure such horrible, public pain, experienced simultaneously with a nationwide convulsion.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
Prime Minister Balendra Shah has vowed to "strongly raise" with the international community the disasters that Nepal has experienced as a result of climate change.
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
This is something Meg Warren, 29, experienced when her former partner's snoring would keep her up.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
Though only sixteen years old, she was an experienced and capable governess, previously employed at Ashton Place, where she had cared for the three wards of Lord Fredrick Ashton.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
People experiencing more complicated gastrointestinal symptoms could also benefit from support from a dietitian or gastroenterologist.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
Yet that perception quickly began to fade as the London-based designer spent more time actually experiencing the city with friends.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
In nearly three years since the brutal attack on Israel, American Jews have been experiencing unprecedented trauma and despair, with escalating antisemitism around the world and across our own country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
“It’s difficult to appreciate the scale, energy, and atmosphere of the property without experiencing it in person,” he noted.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
I had always looked up to this woman, but here she was, making assumptions about me when she had no idea what I was experiencing.
From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
