DictionaryAI

experience

Sayik-SPEER-ee-uhns/ɪkˈspɪɹ.i.əns/UK/ɪkˈspɪə.ɹɪəns/

Pluralexperiences (some meanings)

Verbexperiences, experiencing, experienced

6 meanings of experience

Practice

  1. 1
    skill from practicenoununcountable
    The practical knowledge or skill a person acquires from accumulated events and activities.

    Decades of experience told her the deal would collapse before it closed.

    The role calls for experience in managing large teams under pressure.

    UsageExperience in a field, years of experience; for skill, say a lot of experience (not incorrect: a lot of experiences).

    Similarexpertise, knowledge, skill, practice

    Oppositeinexperience

  2. 2
    to go throughverbtransitive
    To observe events, undergo a feeling or process, or perform actions that may change a person or add to their knowledge, opinions, or skills.

    Travelers often experience culture shock during their first weeks abroad.

    The patient experienced sharp chest pains throughout the night.

    UsageOften with problems or feelings: experience pain, experience delays, experience difficulties.

    Similarundergo, encounter, feel, suffer, face

  3. 3
    an eventnouncountable
    A particular activity or event that a person has taken part in.

    The concert was an unforgettable experience for everyone there.

    Living abroad for a year proved to be a life-changing experience.

    UsageCommon phrases include a great experience and a life-changing experience; you have an experience.

    Similarevent, episode, adventure

  4. 4
    nouncountable or uncountable
    Direct personal contact with and observation of events, or everything a person or group has lived through, seen as the source of their knowledge and impressions.

    Watching the storm on TV was nothing like the experience of feeling it shake our own windows.

    There is no substitute for the experience of standing on the summit yourself.

    UsageSet phrases: in my experience and from experience, as in I know from experience.

    Note

    Here the word sets firsthand impression against hearsay or imagination. It works two ways in a sentence. It is countable for one memorable event, as when M. D. Greville in 1957 calls riding the old Underground "an experience to be remembered". It is uncountable for the slow teacher of Robert Barr's "experience has taught me". The countable use shades into a single thing one has done.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • M. D. Greville described travelling on the Underground as "an experience to be remembered" in July 1957. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    game pointsnouncountable or uncountable
    In role-playing games, the points a character accumulates through actions in order to advance in level or ability.

    Players grind low-level monsters to farm experience early in the game.

    Completing the side quest rewarded the whole party with bonus experience.

    UsagePlayers earn, gain or farm experience, often shortened to XP.

    Note

    Games turn the abstract noun into a kind of currency. Troops or characters earn experience by defeating enemies, and enough of it makes them level up, raising their stats.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Troops or characters can earn experience by defeating enemies. wiki.wesnoth.org
    • Accumulating enough experience advances a character's level. dndbeyond.com
    • Gaining levels increases character statistics. dndbeyond.com
  2. 6
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    A trial, test, or experiment carried out to establish or verify some fact.
    She caused him to make experience / Vpon wyld beasts, which she in woods did find, / With wrongfull powre oppressing others of their kind
    1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
    Note

    This obsolete meaning sits closest to the Latin. Experientia meant "a trial, proof, experiment", from experiri, "to try, put to the test." Book V of Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1596) uses it in the phrase make experience upon, meaning to try one's skill on wild beasts. A modern reader meeting it in older verse should hear "test" where today's English would say experiment.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 8 facts

    • Experience formerly meant a trial, test, or experiment; this sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
    • Latin experientia meant a trial, proof, or experiment. en.wiktionary.org
    • Experientia derives from experiri. en.wiktionary.org
    • Experiri means to try or put to the test. en.wiktionary.org
    • Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene. en.wikipedia.org
    • The poem began publication in 1590. The quoted passage belongs to Book V, which first appeared in 1596; qualify the date accordingly. gla.ac.uk
    • The passage containing make experience upon first appeared in 1596. en.wikisource.org
    • The poem uses make experience upon about trying one's skill on wild beasts. en.wikisource.org

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English experience, borrowed via Old French from Latin experientia ("a trial, proof, or knowledge gained by testing"), from experiri ("to try, put to the test, undergo"), from ex ("out") and a verbal base related to peritus ("experienced, expert"). It is related to expert and peril, and it displaced the native Old English āfandung.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 10 facts