experiential
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of experiential
From the Medieval Latin word experientiālis, dating back to 1640–50. See experience, -al 1
Explanation
Something experiential comes from the real world — from experience. Experiential things can be seen, touched, and verified. Some knowledge comes from reading about it. But experiential knowledge comes from actually doing and experiencing it. If you learned to sail by spending every summer on the water with your own boat, then you have an experiential understanding of sailing. If something is experiential, it's real, rather than conceptual. But you can't learn everything experientially. That's what books are for.
Vocabulary lists containing experiential
The Left Hand of Darkness
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Turtles All the Way Down
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Watch Us Rise
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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.
But Svetz relishes the chance to see the film nonetheless, and views the enthusiasm for the rerelease as evidence that moviegoing is becoming more intentionally experiential.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2026
Going out for a froyo can be "an experiential moment" as much as anything, she adds.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
The event was created by Chance Albury and Sarah Prince, founders of the Washington, D.C.-based experiential production company Something Different.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
They do not,” Denisha Jones, the executive director of Defending the Early Years, a nonprofit that advocates for playful and experiential approaches to childhood education, told me.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
Examining experiential differences between improvisation and composition in children’s music-making.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
