experiment
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Conducting a controlled test or investigation.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihkspehruhmuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪksˈpɛɹəmənt
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
The act of conducting a controlled test or investigation
A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried.
verb
Try something new, as in order to gain experience
intransitive
To conduct an experiment.
To conduct a test or investigation
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of conducting a controlled test or investigation
Used this way, experiment 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 experiment
- “It was an experiment in living.”noun
- “As an experiment he decided to grow a beard.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A research worker who conducts experiments.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Bias introduced by an experimenter whose expectations about the outcome of the experiment can be subtly communicated to the participants in the experiment.
A celebrated experiment conducted by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley.
A preliminary experiment whose outcome can lead to a more extensive experiment.
In an experimental fashion.
An experiment designed to control for variables affecting the results of another experiment.
An experimental procedure in which neither the subjects of the experiment nor the persons administering the experiment know the critical aspects of the experiment.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Relating to or based on experiment.
The specific techniques used in conducting a particular experiment.
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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.