experience
/ɪkˈspɪə.ri.əns/ IELTSAcademic
noun
Experience is knowledge or skill you get from doing something or from being in a situation. It can also mean something that happens to you.
- She has years of experience in teaching.
- This job needs experience, not just qualifications.
- Travel was a new experience for him.
verb
To experience something is to go through it, feel it, or have it happen to you.
- I experienced severe traffic on the way home.
- She experienced joy after hearing the news.
- We experienced a power cut last night.
Adinary Nuance
Experience is broader than knowledge or skill. Use it when you mean learning from real life, not only from books or classes. As a noun, it can mean both the time you have done something and a specific event you lived through. In formal writing, it is often stronger than practice because it suggests real, proven involvement.
In other languages
- Vietnamese
- kinh nghiệm
- Spanish
- experiencia
- Chinese
- 经验
- Japanese
- 経験
- Korean
- 경험
Etymology
The word comes from Latin experientia, meaning “trial” or “proof.” It entered English through Old French in the late Middle Ages.
Common phrases
work experiencehave experience inexperience of lifecustomer experience
Synonyms
Related words
Frequently asked questions
- Is experience countable or uncountable?
- Usually it is uncountable when you mean skill or knowledge. It can be countable when you mean an event or event type.
- What is the difference between experience and practice?
- Experience means real involvement in life or work. Practice means repeated doing to improve a skill.
- Is experience formal or informal?
- It is common in both formal and everyday English. It is especially useful in resumes, interviews, and academic writing.
- How do I use experience in a sentence?
- You can say “I have experience in marketing” or “It was a new experience.”