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experience

 - 4 dictionary results

ex⋅pe⋅ri⋅ence

  [ik-speer-ee-uhns] noun, verb, -enced, -enc⋅ing.
Use experience in a Sentence
–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 experiēns, 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
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To experience
ex·pe·ri·ence   (ĭk-spîr'ē-əns)   
n.  

  1. 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.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

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.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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