experience

[ik-speer-ee-uhns]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR experience ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a particular instance of personally encountering or undergoing something: My encounter with the bear in the woods was a frightening experience.

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.

Philosophy. the totality of the cognitions given by perception; all that is perceived, understood, and remembered.

verb (used with object), ex·pe·ri·enced, ex·pe·ri·enc·ing.

to have experience of; meet with; undergo; feel: to experience nausea.

to learn by experience.

Idioms

experience religion, to undergo a spiritual conversion by which one gains or regains faith in God.

Origin of experience

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin experientia, equivalent to experient- (stem of experiēns, past participle of experīrī to try, test; see ex-¹, peril) + -ia noun suffix; see -ence

Related formsex·pe·ri·ence·a·ble, adjectiveex·pe·ri·ence·less, adjectivepost·ex·pe·ri·ence, adjectivepre·ex·pe·ri·ence, noun, verb (used with object), pre·ex·pe·ri·enced, pre·ex·pe·ri·enc·ing.re·ex·pe·ri·ence, verb, re·ex·pe·ri·enced, re·ex·pe·ri·enc·ing.

Synonyms for experience

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR experience ON THESAURUS.COM

6. encounter, know, endure, suffer. Experience, undergo refer to encountering situations, conditions, etc., in life, or to having certain sensations or feelings. Experience implies being affected by what one meets with: to experience a change of heart, bitter disappointment. Undergo usually refers to the bearing or enduring of something hard, difficult, disagreeable, or dangerous: to undergo severe hardships, an operation.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for experience

Women are more likely to recover sooner from birth and less likely to experience post-partum depression.
How Good Dads Can Change the World|Gary Barker, PhD, Michael Kaufman|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
He flew with Captain Irianto, 53, who had 20,000 hours experience, more than 6,000 hours on the A320.
Annoying Airport Delays Might Prevent You From Becoming the Next AirAsia 8501|Clive Irving|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Faal has some experience in both political and security matters, it seems.
The Shadowy U.S. Veteran Who Tried to Overthrow a Country|Jacob Siegel|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
At such a moment, the pilot has no resources other than his own instincts and experience.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST

The shared feelings, the bubbling emotion, the awe: she became an experience.
Bow Down, Bitches: How Beyoncé Turned an Elevator Brawl Into a Perfect Year|Kevin Fallon|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Thus my memory was really correct; I had merely forgotten the experience to which it referred.
Criminal Psychology|Hans Gross
This seems good a priori reasoning, but experience does not confirm it.
Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets|Various
Experience, at this rate, would be much like a paint of which the world pictures were made.
Essays in Radical Empiricism|William James
Experience has made it well known that the children of the aged readily show degenerate types.
Degeneracy|Eugene S. Talbot
To one experience of my tour as a lecturer I shall always be able to look back with satisfaction.
My Discovery of England|Stephen Leacock

British Dictionary definitions for experience

experience

noun

direct personal participation or observation; actual knowledge or contactexperience of prison life

a particular incident, feeling, etc, that a person has undergonean experience to remember

accumulated knowledge, esp of practical mattersa man of experience

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, etcthe American experience

philosophy

the content of a perception regarded as independent of whether the apparent object actually existsCompare sense datum
the faculty by which a person acquires knowledge of contingent facts about the world, as contrasted with reason
the totality of a person's perceptions, feelings, and memories

verb (tr)

to participate in or undergo

to be emotionally or aesthetically moved by; feelto experience beauty

Derived Formsexperienceable, adjective

Word Origin for experience

C14: from Latin experientia, from experīrī to prove; related to Latin perīculum peril

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for experience

late 14c., "observation as the source of knowledge; actual observation; an event which has affected one," from Old French esperience (13c.) "experiment, proof, experience," from Latin experientia "knowledge gained by repeated trials," from experientem (nominative experiens), present participle of experiri "to try, test," from ex- "out of" (see ex-) + peritus "experienced, tested," from PIE root *per- "to lead, pass over" (see peril). Meaning "state of having done something and gotten handy at it" is from late 15c.

1530s, "to test, try;" see experience (n.). Sense of "feel, undergo" first recorded 1580s. Related: Experiences; experiencing.

Medicine definitions for experience

experience

[ĭk-spîr′ē-əns]

n.

The feeling of emotions and sensations as opposed to thinking; involvement in what is happening rather than abstract reflection on an event.

Related formsex•pe′ri•ence v.

experience

noun

verb (used with object), ex·pe·ri·enced, ex·pe·ri·enc·ing.

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Idioms

Origin of experience

Synonyms for experience

Examples from the Web for experience

experience

noun

verb (tr)

Word Origin for experience

experience

n.