— experienceable , adj. — experienceless , adj.
/ik spear"ee euhns/ , n. , v. , experienced, experiencing .
n.
1. a particular instance of personally encountering or undergoing something: My encounter with the bear in the woods was a frightening experience.
2. the process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something: business experience.
3. the observing, encountering, or undergoing of things generally as they occur in the course of time: to learn from experience; the range of human experience.
4. knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone: a man of experience.
5. Philos. the totality of the cognitions given by perception; all that is perceived, understood, and remembered.
v.t.
6. to have experience of; meet with; undergo; feel: to experience nausea.
7. to learn by experience.
8. experience religion , to undergo a spiritual conversion by which one gains or regains faith in God.
[ 1350-1400; ME experientia, equiv. to experient- (s. of experiens, ptp. of experiri to try, test; see EX- 1 , PERIL) + -ia n. suffix; see -ENCE ]
Syn. 6. encounter, know, endure, suffer. EXPERIENCE, UNDERGO refer to encountering situations, conditions, etc., in life, or to having certain sensations or feelings. EXPERIENCE implies being affected by what one meets with: to experience a change of heart, bitter disappointment. UNDERGO usually refers to the bearing or enduring of something hard, difficult, disagreeable, or dangerous: to undergo severe hardships, an operation.