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6 dictionary results for: Experience

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ex·pe·ri·ence

[ik-speer-ee-uh

ns] Pronunciation Key noun, verb, -enced, -enc·ing.

–noun

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

2.	the process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something: business experience.

3.	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.

4.	knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone: a man of experience.

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

–verb (used with object)

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

7.	to learn by experience.

—Idiom

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

[Origin: 1350–1400; ME < L experientia, equiv. to experient- (s. of experiéns, ptp. of experīrī to try, test; see ex-¹, peril) + -ia n. suffix; see -ence

]

—Related forms

ex·pe·ri·ence·a·ble, adjective

ex·pe·ri·ence·less, adjective

—Synonyms 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 (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ex·pe·ri·ence (ĭk-spîr'ē-əns) Pronunciation Key
n.

The apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the senses or mind: a child's first experience of snow.
1. Active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill: a lesson taught by experience; a carpenter with experience in roof repair.
2. The knowledge or skill so derived.
3. An event or a series of events participated in or lived through.
4. The totality of such events in the past of an individual or group.
1. An event or a series of events participated in or lived through.
2. The totality of such events in the past of an individual or group.

tr.v. ex·per·i·enced, ex·per·i·enc·ing, ex·per·i·enc·es
To participate in personally; undergo: experience a great adventure; experienced loneliness.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin experientia, from experiēns, experient-, present participle of experīrī, to try; see per-³ in Indo-European roots.]

ex·pe'ri·enc·er n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
experience

1377, from O.Fr. experience, from L. experientia "knowledge gained by repeated trials," from experientem (nom. experiens), prp. of experiri "to try, test," from ex- "out of" + peritus "experienced, tested." The v. (1533) first meant "to test, try;" sense of "feel, undergo" first recorded 1588.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

experience
noun
1.	the accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities; "a man of experience"; "experience is the best teacher" [ant: inexperience]
2.	the content of direct observation or participation in an event; "he had a religious experience"; "he recalled the experience vividly"
3.	an event as apprehended; "a surprising experience"; "that painful experience certainly got our attention"
verb
1.	go or live through; "We had many trials to go through"; "he saw action in Viet Nam"
2.	have firsthand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or sensations; "I know the feeling!"; "have you ever known hunger?"; "I have lived a kind of hell when I was a drug addict"; "The holocaust survivors have lived a nightmare"; "I lived through two divorces" [syn: know]
3.	go through (mental or physical states or experiences); "get an idea"; "experience vertigo"; "get nauseous"; "receive injuries"; "have a feeling"
4.	undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind; "She felt resentful"; "He felt regret" [syn: feel]
5.	undergo; "The stocks had a fast run-up" [syn: have]

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American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

experience ex·pe·ri·ence (ĭk-spēr'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.

ex·pe'ri·ence v.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Experience

Ex*pe"ri*ence\, n. [F. exp['e]rience, L. experientia, tr. experiens, ?entis, p. pr. of experiri, expertus, to try; ex out + the root of pertus experienced. See Peril, and cf. Expert.]

1. Trial, as a test or experiment. [Obs.]

She caused him to make experience Upon wild beasts. --Spenser.

2. The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or suffering. "Guided by other's experiences." --Shak.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. --P. Henry

To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed. --Coleridge.

When the consuls . . . came in . . . they knew soon by experience how slenderly guarded against danger the majesty of rulers is where force is wanting. --Holland.

Those that undertook the religion of our Savior upon his preaching, had no experience of it. --Sharp.

3. An act of knowledge, one or more, by which single facts or general truths are ascertained; experimental or inductive knowledge; hence, implying skill, facility, or practical wisdom gained by personal knowledge, feeling or action; as, a king without experience of war.

Whence hath the mind all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer in one word, from experience. --Locke.

Experience may be acquired in two ways; either, first by noticing facts without any attempt to influence the frequency of their occurrence or to vary the circumstances under which they occur; this is observation; or, secondly, by putting in action causes or agents over which we have control, and purposely varying their combinations, and noticing what effects take place; this is experiment. --Sir J. Herschel.

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