Collins English-English Dictionary

experience [ɪk'spɪərɪəns]

1. 1. n direct personal participation or observation; actual knowledge or contact

   experience of prison life

2. 2. n a particular incident, feeling, etc, that a person has undergone

   an experience to remember

3. 3. n accumulated knowledge, esp of practical matters

   a man of experience

4. 4. n the totality of characteristics, both past and present, that make up the particular quality of a person, place, or people

5. 5. n the impact made on an individual by the culture of a people, nation, etc

   the American experience

6. 6. n [philosophy] the content of a perception regarded as independent of whether the apparent object actually exists - Compare sense datum

7. 7. n the faculty by which a person acquires knowledge of contingent facts about the world, as contrasted with reason

8. 8. n the totality of a person's perceptions, feelings, and memories

9. 9. vt. [tr] to participate in or undergo

10. 10. vt. to be emotionally or aesthetically moved by; feel

    to experience beauty

11. 11. vt. [Etymology] C14: from Latin experientia, from experiri to prove; related to Latin periculum peril