experience
Americannoun
-
experiences
plural
-
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
-
accumulated knowledge, esp of practical matters
a 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, 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
-
the totality of a person's perceptions, feelings, and memories
-
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
-
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
-
had experiencedperfect
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was experiencingprogressive
-
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:
"There isn't always a single fixed figure, and employers will want to set pay based on a candidate's skills, experience and potential."
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
“I Play Rocky” both retells a glorious experience and offers one of its own.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
Bass, 73, was elected in 2022 as the first Black woman mayor in Los Angeles history, and entered the role with decades of state and federal government experience.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
Handler cites her experience as a Dudamel Fellow, in 2024, conducting “Swan Lake” selections for the orchestra’s youth series.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
For the first time in five years, though, there’s something off about my Choi experience.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
The decline of Ocon's time with Haas has echoes of previous experiences.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
Magnetism is familiar from everyday experiences, whether it is a refrigerator magnet holding up a photograph or a compass aligning with Earth's magnetic field.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026
It’s overwhelming these experiences, almost to the point where it makes me wonder, did they really happen or not?
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
While some of those experiences were addressed on the record itself, the LP was less a confessional than an affirmation that, despite the turmoil, Queens of the Stone Age wasn’t going anywhere.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
They’d all had experiences with angry wind spirits.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
When insurance covered little or none of the cost of infertility treatment, women experienced greater financial toxicity and subsequent anxiety.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
"Last week in Oleshky and neighbouring areas of Kherson, people experienced the simple joys of life for the first time since 2022," Trump said.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
Becerra may also be sympathetic to environmental justice communities — poorer neighborhoods, often of color — that have experienced disproportionately negative effects from extraction industries such as oil drilling and mining.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
In a Belgian case series involving 100 people who received phage treatment, 77 percent experienced an improvement in their clinical condition.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026
Later that year, Marina teamed up with another daring and experienced female pilot, Valentina Grizodubova.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
“I Play Rocky” is an emotionally staggering new way of experiencing the “Rocky” story all over again.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
In a statement issued by his club Andorra on Wednesday, goalkeeper Owono said he is experiencing "the most difficult days of my life".
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
Was he diagnosed with dementia, suffering from memory problems, experiencing hospitalizations or disoriented by new medications?
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
More than 200,000 people in South Kordofan and North Darfur states are experiencing famine, according to UN-backed reports that also warn it could spread to eight cities by 2027.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
Maybe I was the only one experiencing these little stomach flips.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
