experience

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experience living through events and the impression on a person or animal of events. In epistemology, a distinction is made between things known inductively, from experience, and those known deductively or theoretically, from a priori principles. The ancients, under the influence of Plato and of Euclidean geometry, tended to prize deductive or theoretical knowledge above that gained through experience. Their influence was dominant through the Renaissance. With the rise of modern empirical science the preference was reversed. Immanuel Kant's critical epistemology, however, emphasized the dependence of all experience on the mediation of the intelligence. Modern thought has tended to agree with Kant; accordingly, discussion has centered on what, if anything, can be said to be immediately experience, and how this experience may be conditioned by social factors affecting the social milieu or by perceptual processes themselves.

ex·pe·ri·ence / ikˈspi(ə)rēəns/ • n. practical contact with and observation of facts or events: he had already learned his lesson by painful experience. ∎  the knowledge or skill acquired by such means over a period of time, esp. that gained in a particular profession by someone at work: candidates with the necessary experience. ∎  an event or occurrence that leaves an impression on someone: for the younger players it has been a learning experience. • v. [tr.] encounter or undergo (an event or occurrence): the company is experiencing difficulties. ∎  feel (an emotion): an opportunity to experience the excitement of New York. DERIVATIVES: ex·pe·ri·ence·a·ble adj. ex·pe·ri·enc·er n.

Experience (1914), a play by George V. Hobart. [Booth Theatre, 255 perf.] Youth ( William Elliott), goaded by an insidious but faint‐hearted Ambition, leaves his happy garden and sets out on the Road of Life. His journeys take him to the Street of Vacillation, the Primrose Path, the Corridors of Chance, and the Street of Disillusion. His fortunes fail, and he moves from one frustrating, unhappy adventure to the next. When he is about to take up with Crime ( Frank McCormack), the voices of his past call to him, and he stumbles home. There, with the help of Love ( Miriam Collins), he finds a better life. Originally presented as a one‐act play at the Lambs, it was expanded by the author and produced by Elliott on Broadway, becoming one of the few out‐and‐out morality plays to find commercial success.

experience experience is the best teacher sometimes used with the implication that learning by experience may be painful. The saying is recorded from the mid 16th century, but the ultimate source is the Latin saying ‘experientia docet [experience teaches]’, and the proverb exists in a number of forms. (Compare experience keeps a dear school.)
experience is the father of wisdom real understanding of something comes only from direct experience of it. The saying is recorded in English from the mid 16th century, but the Greek lyric poet Alcman of the 7th century bc has, ‘experience is the beginning of knowledge.’
experience keeps a dear school lessons learned from experience can be painful (compare experience is the best teacher). The saying is recorded from the mid 18th century.

experience †trial; observation of facts; condition or event by which one is affected XIV; knowledge resulting from observation; state of having been occupied in some way XV. — (O)F. expérience — L. experientia, f. experīrī try; see EX-1, PERIL, -ENCE.
Hence vb. XVI. So experiment †test, trial; action undertaken to discover or test something. XIV. Hence vb. †experience, ascertain, test XV; make an experiment XVIII. experimental XV. — (O)F. or medL. expert trained by experience XIV. — (O)F. expert, refash. of †espert after L. expertus, pp. of experīrī. expert one who is expert, specialist. XIX. — F., sb. use of the adj. expertise XIX. — F.

experience •abeyance, conveyance, purveyance •creance • ambience •irradiance, radiance •expedience, obedience •audience •dalliance, mésalliance •salience •consilience, resilience •emollience • ebullience •convenience, lenience, provenience •impercipience, incipience, percipience •variance • experience •luxuriance, prurience •nescience • omniscience •insouciance • deviance •subservience • transience •alliance, appliance, compliance, defiance, misalliance, neuroscience, reliance, science •allowance •annoyance, clairvoyance, flamboyance •fluence, pursuance •perpetuance • affluence • effluence •mellifluence • confluence •congruence • issuance • continuance •disturbance •attendance, dependence, interdependence, resplendence, superintendence, tendance, transcendence •cadence •antecedence, credence, impedance •riddance • diffidence • confidence •accidence • precedence • dissidence •coincidence, incidence •evidence •improvidence, providence •residence •abidance, guidance, misguidance, subsidence •correspondence, despondence •accordance, concordance, discordance •avoidance, voidance •imprudence, jurisprudence, prudence •impudence • abundance • elegance •arrogance • extravagance •allegiance • indigence •counter-intelligence, intelligence •negligence • diligence • intransigence •exigence •divulgence, effulgence, indulgence, refulgence •convergence, divergence, emergence, insurgence, resurgence, submergence •significance •balance, counterbalance, imbalance, outbalance, valance •parlance • repellence • semblance •bivalence, covalence, surveillance, valence •sibilance • jubilance • vigilance •pestilence • silence • condolence •virulence • ambulance • crapulence •flatulence • feculence • petulance •opulence • fraudulence • corpulence •succulence, truculence •turbulence • violence • redolence •indolence • somnolence • excellence •insolence • nonchalance •benevolence, malevolence •ambivalence, equivalence •Clemence • vehemence •conformance, outperformance, performance •adamance • penance • ordinance •eminence • imminence •dominance, prominence •abstinence • maintenance •continence • countenance •sustenance •appurtenance, impertinence, pertinence •provenance • ordnance • repugnance •ordonnance • immanence •impermanence, permanence •assonance • dissonance • consonance •governance • resonance • threepence •halfpence • sixpence •comeuppance, tuppence, twopence •clarence, transparence •aberrance, deterrence, inherence, Terence •remembrance • entrance •Behrens, forbearance •fragrance • hindrance • recalcitrance •abhorrence, Florence, Lawrence, Lorentz •monstrance •concurrence, co-occurrence, occurrence, recurrence •encumbrance •adherence, appearance, clearance, coherence, interference, perseverance •assurance, durance, endurance, insurance •exuberance, protuberance •preponderance • transference •deference, preference, reference •difference • inference • conference •sufferance • circumference •belligerence • tolerance • ignorance •temperance • utterance • furtherance •irreverence, reverence, severance •deliverance • renascence • absence •acquiescence, adolescence, arborescence, coalescence, convalescence, deliquescence, effervescence, essence, evanescence, excrescence, florescence, fluorescence, incandescence, iridescence, juvenescence, luminescence, obsolescence, opalescence, phosphorescence, pubescence, putrescence, quiescence, quintessence, tumescence •obeisance, Renaissance •puissance •impuissance, reminiscence •beneficence, maleficence •magnificence, munificence •reconnaissance • concupiscence •reticence •licence, license •nonsense •nuisance, translucence •innocence • conversance • sentience •impatience, patience •conscience •repentance, sentence •acceptance • acquaintance •acquittance, admittance, intermittence, pittance, quittance, remittance •assistance, coexistence, consistence, distance, existence, insistence, outdistance, persistence, resistance, subsistence •instance • exorbitance •concomitance •impenitence, penitence •appetence •competence, omnicompetence •inheritance • capacitance • hesitance •Constance • importance • potence •conductance, inductance, reluctance •substance • circumstance •omnipotence • impotence •inadvertence • grievance •irrelevance, relevance •connivance, contrivance •observance • sequence • consequence •subsequence • eloquence •grandiloquence, magniloquence •brilliance • poignance •omnipresence, pleasance, presence •complaisance • malfeasance •incognizance, recognizance •usance • recusance