experience
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A collection of events and/or activities from which a person or group may gather knowledge, opinions.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihkspihreeuhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪksˈpɪɹiəns
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
usually uncountable
A collection of events and/or activities from which an individual or group may gather knowledge, opinions, and skills.
The accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities
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.
uncountable
The knowledge thus gathered.
An event as apprehended
countable
An activity one has performed.
verb
transitive
To observe certain events; undergo a certain feeling or process; or perform certain actions that may alter one or contribute to one's knowledge, opinions, or skills.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A collection of events and/or activities from which an individual or group may gather knowledge, opinions, and skills.
Used this way, experience is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use experience
- “A man of experience.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Having experience.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The act of conducting a controlled test or investigation.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The representation of what is perceived.
An unelaborated elementary awareness of stimulation.
The experience of being close to death but surviving.
The dissociative experience of observing yourself from an external perspective as though your mind or soul had left and was observing your body.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Relating to or resulting from experience.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Antonyms
Sense: collection of events and/or activities from which an individual
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.