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.
-
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.
-
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
-
the impact made on an individual by the culture of a people, nation, etc
the American experience
-
-
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
-
to participate in or undergo
-
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:
Because their bodies are still developing, younger generations are expected to experience the greatest lifetime exposure to elevated atmospheric CO2.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
“What we’re seeing is as users are engaging with their vertical video experience, they are actually engaging in the overall product experience, double the amount of time,” she said onstage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
If restaurants, breweries or liquor companies want people to spend money, they have to convince them the experience is worth the cost.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Jacques was also conscious his own experience could only take him so far.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Such softness was a new and wonderful experience for Duane.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
D’Amaro is no stranger to the D23 stage; in his past role as parks chief, he would give updates on the latest news for the experiences division.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
His mother was diagnosed with cancer when he was 15, but it took another eight years for him to feel ready to turn some of those experiences into a script.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Their richer experiences are the upside of recent cuts to internship programs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Remember, one of the acronyms for fear is “future experiences appearing real.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
The referee was right: Plutarch’s experience was an indirect experience, just as Aristotle’s phenomena were based on other people’s experiences; Garzoni’s and della Porta’s experiences were based on real, personally performed tests.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Corey Seemiller told me every generation tends to romanticize the version of young adulthood it experienced while quietly forgetting the parts that weren’t so glamorous.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Many experienced homeowners will know there’s a steep learning curve that can include financial surprises.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Even Ronaldo, the most-followed athlete on Instagram, experienced a healthy leap.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
She is already the highest-rated woman in England, and the sight of her toppling much older and more experienced men and women has become the norm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Perhaps you may think that taking the icicle pop is the obvious response, but C.C. was neither experienced nor comfortable in social situations.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
Since 2021, there have been 41 fires in Malibu believed to have been started by individuals experiencing homelessness, according to a city spokesperson.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
"We deliberately looked at a scenario that is much slower than what we're experiencing today," explains co-author Reyk Börner.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
One of their favourite moments, he said, is experiencing the Muslim country during the month of Ramadan.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Thousands of homes in east London and Essex are still experiencing a complete water outage or low water pressure, almost a week after a series of pipes burst in South Woodford.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
An announcement on the overhead tells us we’re experiencing a brief delay and the system should be up and running again shortly.
From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera
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.
