experience Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities
    • a man of experience
    • experience is the best teacher
  2. noun the content of direct observation or participation in an event
    • he had a religious experience
    • he recalled the experience vividly
  3. noun an event as apprehended
    • a surprising experience
    • that painful experience certainly got our attention
  4. verb go or live through
    see; go through.
    • We had many trials to go through
    • he saw action in Viet Nam
  5. verb have firsthand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or sensations
    live; know.
    • 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
  6. verb go through (mental or physical states or experiences)
    receive; have; get.
    • get an idea
    • experience vertigo
    • get nauseous
    • receive injuries
    • have a feeling
  7. verb undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind
    feel.
    • She felt resentful
    • He felt regret
  8. verb undergo
    have.
    • The stocks had a fast run-up

WordNet

Ex*pe"ri*ence noun
Etymology
F. expérience, L. experientia, tr. experiens, entis, p. pr. of experiri, expertus, to try; ex out + the root of pertus experienced. See Peril, and cf. Expert.
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913