experience
Americannoun
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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)
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
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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
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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:
According to Fuller's calculations, a star approaching the white dwarf stage may experience roughly 10,000 small kicks over several hundred thousand years.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
At an island resort such as Anantara Koh Yao Yai, a 90-minute Thai massage costs around $175, and comes with all the bells and whistles of luxury experience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
He said his experience presenting live television proved invaluable during the audition.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
I do experience some manic phases from time to time, where I can’t stop doing things like painting or writing songs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The boy hadn’t trusted him at first —social workers, in his experience, said all kinds of things—but had grown to believe him.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
“Together we will build creative experiences for our consumers across our destinations, platforms, and fan touchpoints,” Becca Vodnoy, Walt Disney Co. senior vice president of corporate alliances, said in the statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The company said the deal represents the next step in a strategy to expand beyond grocery shelves and into immersive experiences and experiential commerce.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Whether they succeed in the long run remains to be seen, but in the process, they are going to make your movie-going and likely TV-viewing experiences more tiresome.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
“Many of these experiences skew towards the high end of the income distribution,” Goldman says.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
“Best to keep all those supernatural experiences to yourselves. No use trying to convince people of things they can’t understand, much less believe.”
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
The UK experienced several historic solar storms in 2024 as Cycle 25 approached its "solar maximum," the period of greatest activity.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
She also experienced other family members cutting her off in anger over her estrangement with her mom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
In 2024, the Amazon rainforest experienced its worst forest fires in over two decades, which the Copernicus Climate Change Service put down to "climate extremes and human activity".
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
He presents himself not as a political press secretary but as the experienced operator who understands what federal agents need and how immigration enforcement must work.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
Autumn is hard of hearing; she has postlingual hearing loss in both ears, which basically means that she experienced her hearing loss after she learned how to talk.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
After experiencing the loss of three friends in auto accidents, Assemblymember Tina McKinnor decided she needed to take action.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
A widely available antidepressant may provide meaningful relief for people experiencing persistent fatigue from long COVID, according to a global clinical trial co-led by McMaster University.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 19, 2026
The U.S. is already experiencing above-average food-price inflation this year due to factors such as tariffs and severe weather in many major agricultural growing regions around the world, Volpe said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
Much of the county's focus has been on increasing access to air conditioning, as many heat deaths were among people with low incomes or experiencing homelessness.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Sabrina calls out, reminding us to think about what we’re feeling and experiencing as we take in the images, because we will close the day with a reflection.
From "Piecing Me Together" by Renée Watson
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.
