n. The state or fact of having made trial or proof, or of having acquired knowledge, wisdom, skill, etc., by actual trial or observation; also, the knowledge so acquired; personal and practical acquaintance with anything; experimental cognition or perception: as, he knows what suffering is by long experience; experience teaches even fools.n. In philosophy, knowledge acquired through external or internal perception; also, the totality of the cognitions given by perception, taken in their connection; all that is perceived, understood, and remembered.n. Specifically That which has been learned, suffered, or done, considered as productive of practical judgment and skill; the sum of practical wisdom taught by all the events, vicissitudes, and observations of one's life, or by any particular class or division of them.n. An individual or particular instance of trial or observation.n. An experiment.n. A fixed mental impression or emotion; specifically, a guiding or controlling religious feeling, as at the time of conversion or resulting from subsequent influences.n. Synonyms Experience, Experiment, Observation. Experience is strictly that which befalls a man, or which he goes through, while experiment is that which one actively undertakes. Observation is looking on, without necessarily having any connection with the matter: it is one thing to know of a man's goodness or of the horrors of war by observation, and quite another to know of it or them by experience. To know of a man's goodness by experiment would be to have put it to actual and intentional test. Bee practice.To learn by practical trial or proof; try or prove by use, by suffering, or by enjoyment; have happen to or befall one; acquire a perception of; undergo: as, we all experience pain, sorrow, and pleasure; we experience good and evil; we often experience a change of sentiments and views, or pleasurable or painful sensations.To practise or drill; exercise.
