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.
Going out for a froyo can be "an experiential moment" as much as anything, she adds.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 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
“That’s smart experiential marketing because the event demonstrates the product proposition instead of the brand having to explain it,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
The experiential art firm has entered into a creative partnership with Titmouse, the studio behind popular series such as “Big Mouth” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 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.
