Definitions for: Experience


[n] the accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities; "a man of experience"; "experience is the best teacher"
[n] the content of direct observation or participation in an event; "he had a religious experience"; "he recalled the experience vividly"
[n] an event as apprehended; "a surprising experience"; "that painful experience certainly got our attention"
[v] undergo; "The stocks had a fast run-up"
[v] 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"
[v] undergo an emotional sensation; "She felt resentful"; "He felt regret"
[v] of mental or physical states or experiences; "get an idea"; "experience vertigo"; "get nauseous"; "undergo a strange sensation"; "The chemical undergoes a sudden change"; "The fluid undergoes shear"; "receive injuries"; "have a feeling"
[v] go or live through; "We had many trials to go through"; "he saw action in Viet Nam"



Webster (1913) Definition: 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.

Synonyms: feel, get, go through, have, have, know, live, receive, see, undergo

Antonyms: inexperience

See Also: anger, appalling, augury, beam, boil, burn, chafe, change, cognitive content, come, compassionate, comprehend, condole with, congratulate, content, cool off, die, education, encounter, endure, enjoy, entertain, experience, experience, familiarisation, familiarization, feel, feel for, find, flash, flashing, fly high, foretoken, fume, glow, go through, happening, harbor, harbour, high point, hold, horripilate, joy, know, life, live, live over, living, loss, meet, meet, mental object, natural event, nurse, occurrence, ordeal, participate, perceive, pity, plume, preindication, pride, pride oneself, radiate, reality, recapture, receive, re-experiencing, regret, rejoice, relive, reliving, reminder, repent, respire, rue, sadden, see, see red, seethe, shine, sign, smolder, smoulder, suffer, suffer, sustain, sympathise, sympathize, sympathize with, take, take part, take pride, taste, time, undergo, vision, witness, woodcraft, world

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