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experience

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

10 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "experience", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "experience" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "experience" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

experience is aEnglishnoun. It means: The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintanc... Pronounced /ɪkˈspɪə.ɹɪəns/. It ranks #541 in English word frequency. Often confused with experienced and experiences.

Key facts for experience
PropertyValue
Headwordexperience
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ɪkˈspɪə.ɹɪəns/
Letters10
Frequency rank#541
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of experience in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for experience is 10 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪkˈspɪə.ɹɪəns/. Corpus data places it at rank #541 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for experience, with forms such as "epxerience", "exeprience", and "expeirence". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "experienced", "experiences", "expediency", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English experience, from Old French, from Latin experientia (“a trial, proof, experiment, experimental knowledge, experience”), from experiens, present participle of experiri (“to try, put to the test, undertake, undergo”), from ex (“out”) + per… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is experience, spelled E-X-P-E-R-I-E-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or suffering.
  2. 2
    An activity one has performed.
  3. 3
    A collection of events and/or activities from which an individual or group may gather knowledge, opinions, and skills.
  4. 4
    The knowledge thus gathered.
  5. 5
    A business offering in which a major focus is the way that the customer interacts with the business throughout the transaction, as opposed to only its outcome (the product or service).
  6. 6
    Synonym of experience points
  7. 7
    Trial; a test or experiment.

Etymology

From Middle English experience, from Old French, from Latin experientia (“a trial, proof, experiment, experimental knowledge, experience”), from experiens, present participle of experiri (“to try, put to the test, undertake, undergo”), from ex (“out”) + peritus (“experienced, expert”), past participle of *periri (“to go through”); see expert and peril. Displaced native Old English āfandung (“experience”) and āfandian (“to experience”).

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: epxerience,exeprience,expeirence,expereince,experiance,experiecne,experiencce,experienec,experiennce,experinece,experrience,expperience,expreience,exxperience,xeperience

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for experience

Misspelling Variants of "experience"

epxerience10exeprience10expeirence10expereince10experiance10experiecne10experiencce11experienec10
Misspelling Variants of "experience"

Frequency rank: #541 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "experience"?
"experience" is spelled E-X-P-E-R-I-E-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ɪkˈspɪə.ɹɪəns/.
What does "experience" mean?
As a noun, "experience" means: The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintanc...
What words are commonly confused with "experience"?
"experience" is commonly confused with "experienced", "experiences", "expediency". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "experience"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "experience" is /ɪkˈspɪə.ɹɪəns/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "experience"?
From Middle English experience, from Old French, from Latin experientia (“a trial, proof, experiment, experimental knowledge, experience”), from experiens, present participle of experiri (“to try, put to the test, undertake, undergo”), from ex (“o... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.