Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the senses or mind.
  • noun Active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill.
  • noun The knowledge or skill so derived.
  • noun An event or a series of events participated in or lived through.
  • noun The totality of such events in the past of an individual or group.
  • transitive verb To participate in personally; undergo.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or fact of having made trial or proof, or of having acquired knowledge, wisdom, skill, etc., by actual trial or observation; also, the knowledge so acquired; personal and practical acquaintance with anything; experimental cognition or perception: as, he knows what suffering is by long experience; experience teaches even fools.
  • noun In philosophy, knowledge acquired through external or internal perception; also, the totality of the cognitions given by perception, taken in their connection; all that is perceived, understood, and remembered.
  • noun Specifically That which has been learned, suffered, or done, considered as productive of practical judgment and skill; the sum of practical wisdom taught by all the events, vicissitudes, and observations of one's life, or by any particular class or division of them.
  • noun An individual or particular instance of trial or observation.
  • noun An experiment.
  • noun A fixed mental impression or emotion; specifically, a guiding or controlling religious feeling, as at the time of conversion or resulting from subsequent influences.
  • noun Synonyms Experience, Experiment, Observation. Experience is strictly that which befalls a man, or which he goes through, while experiment is that which one actively undertakes. Observation is looking on, without necessarily having any connection with the matter: it is one thing to know of a man's goodness or of the horrors of war by observation, and quite another to know of it or them by experience. To know of a man's goodness by experiment would be to have put it to actual and intentional test. Bee practice.
  • To learn by practical trial or proof; try or prove by use, by suffering, or by enjoyment; have happen to or befall one; acquire a perception of; undergo: as, we all experience pain, sorrow, and pleasure; we experience good and evil; we often experience a change of sentiments and views, or pleasurable or painful sensations.
  • To practise or drill; exercise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make practical acquaintance with; to try personally; to prove by use or trial; to have trial of; to have the lot or fortune of; to have befall one; to be affected by; to feel
  • transitive verb To exercise; to train by practice.
  • transitive verb (Theol.) to become a convert to the doctrines of Christianity; to yield to the power of religious truth.
  • noun obsolete Trial, as a test or experiment.
  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Event(s) of which one is cognizant.
  • noun Activity which one has performed.
  • noun Collection of events and/or activities from which an individual or group may gather knowledge, opinions, and skills.
  • noun The knowledge thus gathered.
  • verb transitive : To observe certain events; undergo a certain feeling or process; or perform certain actions that may alter one or contribute to one's knowledge, opinions, or skills.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb undergo
  • verb go or live through
  • verb undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind
  • verb have firsthand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or sensations
  • verb go through (mental or physical states or experiences)
  • noun the accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities
  • noun an event as apprehended
  • noun the content of direct observation or participation in an event

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin experientia ("a trial, proof, experiment, experimental knowledge, experience"), from experiens, present participle of experiri ("to try, put to the test, undertake, undergo"), from ex ("out") + *periri ("to go through"), in past participle peritus ("experienced, expert"); see expert and peril.

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Examples

  • We new-born infants, without experience, were born with fear, with memory of fear; and _memory is experience_.

    The Jacket (Star-Rover) Jack London 1896

  • Motorola Hint allows consumers to easily surf the Web with a PC-like experience by rapidly scrolling, zooming in and out, utilizing data caching, bookmarks, cookies and history for an authentic Web experience¹.

    MobileTechNews 2009

  • Motorola Hint allows consumers to easily surf the Web with a PC-like experience by rapidly scrolling, zooming in and out, utilizing data caching, bookmarks, cookies and history for an authentic Web experience¹.

    MobileTechNews 2009

  • Motorola Hint allows consumers to easily surf the Web with a PC-like experience by rapidly scrolling, zooming in and out, utilizing data caching, bookmarks, cookies and history for an authentic Web experience¹.

    MobileTechNews 2009

  • (master degree in finance a plus) •experience in structuring financing for .... if you have experience of creating illustrations f ….

    British Blogs 2008

  • "You gain experience from a loss like that," Scott Bylsma says.

    Penguins coach Bylsma hopes 7 is lucky number this time unlike 2003 2009

  • If McCain experience is similar to Bush, then it is better not to have it.

    Pelosi blasts, McCain defends Bush comments 2008

  • Hilary's construction of the term experience, of course, is not limited to being an elected official -- which would not leave her with a lot -- but her entire career, which is impressive.

    Hillary: Obama Was "Part Time" State Senator 2009

  • The term experience '(taken as either a noun or a verb) is notoriously slippery, but if these things do in fact happen, do not the people involved experience God?

    Warranted Christian Belief 1932- 2000

  • Though, someone once told me that when one uses the term experience in this context, experience then is what you get when you don't get what you really wanted.

    CNN Transcript - Special Event: Bradley Endorses Gore for President - July 13, 2000 2000

Comments

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  • 'Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn- my God, do you learn.' -C.S. Lewis

    February 19, 2008

  • Erfahrung

    to need experience

    previous experience

    May 14, 2009

  • what to do until now

    May 14, 2009

  • I am experiencing all of you experiencing me experiencing all of you.

    May 14, 2009

  • *things that we have gained through doing something

    *events or activities that affect someone in some way

    May 14, 2009

  • Experience

    June 19, 2009