Adjacent Words

Experience definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

EXPE'RIENCE, n. [L. experientia, from experior, to try; ex and ant. perior; Gr. to attempt, whence pirate. Eng. to fare.The L. periculum, Eng. peril, are from the same root. We see the root of these words is to go, to fare, to drive, urge or press, to strain or stretch forward.
1. Trial, or a series of trials or experiments; active effort or attempt to do or to prove something, or repeated efforts. A man attempts to raise wheat on moist or clayey ground; his attempt fails of success; experience proves that wheat will not flourish on such a soil. He repeats the trial, and his experience proves the same fact. A single trial is usually denominated an experiment; experience may be a series of trials, or the result of such trials.
2. Observation of a fact or of the same facts or events happening under like circumstances.
3. Trial from suffering or enjoyment; suffering itself; the use of the senses; as the experience we have of pain or sickness. We know the effect of light, of smell or of taste by experience. We learn the instability of human affairs by observation or by experience. We learn the value of integrity by experience. Hence,
4. Knowledge derived from trials, use, practice, or from a series of observations.
EXPE'RIENCE, v.t. To try by use, by suffering or by enjoyment. Thus we all experience pain, sorrow and pleasure; we experience good and evil; we often experience a change of sentiments and views.
1. To know by practice or trial; to gain knowledge or skill by practice or by a series of observations.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
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, rawness]
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" v
1: go or live through; "We had many trials to go through"; "he saw action in Viet Nam" [syn: experience, see, go through]
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, experience, live]
3: go through (mental or physical states or experiences); "get an idea"; "experience vertigo"; "get nauseous"; "receive injuries"; "have a feeling" [syn: experience, receive, have, get]
4: undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind; "She felt resentful"; "He felt regret" [syn: feel, experience]
5: undergo; "The stocks had a fast run-up" [syn: have, experience]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin experientia act of trying, from experient-, experiens, present participle of experiri to try, from ex- + -periri (akin to periculum attempt) — more at fear Date: 14th century 1. a. direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge b. the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation 2. a. practical knowledge, skill, or practice derived from direct observation of or participation in events or in a particular activity b. the length of such participation <has 10 years' experience in the job> 3. a. the conscious events that make up an individual life b. the events that make up the conscious past of a community or nation or humankind generally 4. something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through 5. the act or process of directly perceiving events or reality II. transitive verb (-enced; -encing) Date: 1580 1. to learn by experience <I have experienced that a landscape and the sky unfold the deepest beauty — Nathaniel Hawthorne> 2. to have experience of ; undergo <experienced severe hardships as a child>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 actual observation of or practical acquaintance with facts or events. 2 knowledge or skill resulting from this. 3 a an event regarded as affecting one (an unpleasant experience). b the fact or process of being so affected (learnt by experience). --v.tr. 1 have experience of; undergo. 2 feel or be affected by (an emotion etc.). Derivatives: experienceable adj. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L experientia f. experiri expert- try

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(experiences, experiencing, experienced) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Experience is knowledge or skill in a particular job or activity, which you have gained because you have done that job or activity for a long time. He has also had managerial experience on every level... He's counting on his mother to take care of the twins for him; she's had plenty of experience with them. N-UNCOUNT: usu with supp see also work experience 2. Experience is used to refer to the past events, knowledge, and feelings that make up someone's life or character. I should not be in any danger here, but experience has taught me caution... She had learned from experience to take little rests in between her daily routine... N-UNCOUNT 3. An experience is something that you do or that happens to you, especially something important that affects you. His only experience of gardening so far proved immensely satisfying... Many of his clients are unbelievably nervous, usually because of a bad experience in the past. N-COUNT: usu with supp 4. If you experience a particular situation, you are in that situation or it happens to you. We had never experienced this kind of holiday before and had no idea what to expect... VERB: V n 5. If you experience a feeling, you feel it or are affected by it. Widows seem to experience more distress than do widowers. VERB: V n • Experience is also a noun. ...the experience of pain. N-SING: the N of n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

eks-pe'-ri-ens:

This word is employed 3 times. In Ge 30:27 the King James Version, Laban says, to Jacob, "I have learned by experience (the Revised Version (British and American) "divined") that Yahweh hath blessed me for thy sake." Here it translates the Hebrew nachash, "to observe diligently," as when one examines the entrails of a bird or animal for the purpose of divination. In Ec 1:16, the writer says, "I have gotten me great wisdom ....; my heart hath had great experience of wisdom and knowledge." Here the Hebrew (ra'ah) means "hath seen abundantly," and the idea seems to be that of a wide outlook combined with actual trial of the things discovered or known.

In Ro 5:4 the King James Version, the Greek word dokime (the American Standard Revised Version more correctly "approvedness"), means the proof or testing of a thing. We rejoice in tribulation because it works out or produces patience, while the latter develops an experience of God, i.e. it brings out as a proved fact His power and love toward us in our preservation in and deliverance from trial.

Thus it is seen the Bible use of the word is not different from the ordinary, which means "the sum of practical wisdom taught by the events and observations of life," or, to go a little farther, the personal and practical acquaintance with what is so taught. Heb 5:13 gives a good practical example. the King James Version says, "Every one that useth milk is unskillful (apeiros) in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe," while the Revised Version (British and American) renders "unskilful" by "without experience of." The thought is that he who fails to search out the deep things of the word of God is so lacking in the exercise of his spiritual senses as to be unable really to know truth from error.

James M. Gray

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Actual observation, actual trial, actual feeling, actual presentation. 2. Continued or repeated observation, long practice, thorough acquaintance with facts, knowledge gained from observation, experimental knowledge, practical wisdom. II. v. a. 1. Feel, be the subject of, have in one's own perceptions or sensations or feelings, actually observe, have before one's own senses, prove by trial, have practical acquaintance with. 2. Undergo, be the subject of. 3. Endure, suffer, be subjected to.

Moby Thesaurus

accept, acquaintance, adventure, affair, affect, affection, apprehend, awareness, background, be aware of, be conscious of, be exposed to, be sensible of, be subjected to, behold, blaseness, circumstance, common sense, consciousness, contact, corpus, data, datum, emotion, emotional charge, emotional shade, encounter, endure, episode, event, expertise, exposure, face, fact, facts, factual base, familiarity, feel, feel deeply, feeling, feeling tone, foreboding, go through, gut reaction, hap, happening, happenstance, have, have a sensation, hear, heartthrob, impression, incident, information, intelligence, intimacy, involvement, inwardness, judgement, ken, know, know-how, knowing, knowledge, labor under, live through, matter of fact, meet, meet up with, meet with, observation, occasion, occurrence, ordeal, participation, particular, pass through, passion, past experience, pay, perceive, percept, perception, phenomenon, practical knowledge, practice, presentiment, private knowledge, privity, profound sense, ratio cognoscendi, reaction, reality, receive, receive an impression, respond, respond to stimuli, response, response to stimuli, run up against, sagacity, sample, savoir faire, savor, savvy, seasoning, see, self-knowledge, sensation, sense, sense impression, sense perception, sensory experience, sentiment, skill, smell, sophistication, spend, stand under, suffer, survey, sustain, taste, technic, technics, technique, tempering, test, touch, trial, turn of events, undercurrent, undergo, view, wisdom, worldly wisdom