experience

UK: /ɪkˈspɪəriəns/ US: /ɪkˈspɪriəns/ ,(ik spēr′ē əns)

Inflections of 'experience' (v): (⇒ conjugate)

experiences

v 3rd person singular

experiencing

v pres p

experienced

v past

experienced

v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

ex•pe•ri•ence /ɪkˈspɪriəns/   n., v., -enced, -enc•ing. 
n. 

1. [countable] something observed, lived through, or undergone:
   That car crash was a frightening experience.
2. [uncountable] the observing, living through, or undergoing of things in the course of time:
   to learn from experience.
3. [uncountable] knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, lived through, or undergone:
   a person of experience.

v. [~ + object]

4. Philosophy to have experience of;
   live through;
   undergo:
   to experience the pleasure of a cruise.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

ex•pe•ri•ence  (ik spēr′ē əns), n., v., -enced, -enc•ing. 
n. 

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.

v.t. 

6. Philosophy to have experience of;
   meet with;
   undergo;
   feel:
   to experience nausea.
7. to learn by experience.
8. Idioms, Religion experience religion, to undergo a spiritual conversion by which one gains or regains faith in God.

• Latin experientia, equivalent. to experient- (stem of experiēns, past participle of experīrī to try, test; see ex-¹, peril) + -ia noun, nominal suffix; see -ence
• Middle English 1350–1400

ex•pe′ri•ence•a•ble, adj. 
ex•pe′ri•ence•less, adj. 
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.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

experience / ɪkˈspɪərɪəns/ noun

1. direct personal participation or observation; actual knowledge or contact
2. a particular incident, feeling, etc, that a person has undergone
3. accumulated knowledge, esp of practical matters
4. the content of a perception regarded as independent of whether the apparent object actually exists
   Compare sense datum

verb (transitive)

1. to participate in or undergo
2. to be emotionally or aesthetically moved by; feel

Etymology: 14th Century: from Latin experientia, from experīrī to prove; related to Latin perīculum peril

exˈperienceable adjective