Meaning & use
experiences
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“experiences” is a form of “experience”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
nounplural
Events or situations that someone has lived through, especially ones that affect or teach them.
Grammar: Plural of the countable sense: one experience, many experiences.
Patterns
- experiences of something
- share experiences
Travelers swapped experiences over dinner.
Her experiences abroad changed how she saw her own country.
The book collects experiences of people who survived the storm.
nounpluralbusiness
Feelings or events considered from the point of view of how they feel to a person or customer.
Grammar: Common in business: customer experiences, user experiences.
Patterns
- customer experiences
- user experiences
The company aims to improve user experiences on its app.
Guests wrote about their experiences at the hotel.
verbtransitive
Third person singular of 'experience': goes through or feels something.
Grammar: Takes an object: she experiences pain.
Patterns
- someone experiences something
Everyone experiences fear differently.
The region experiences heavy rain in spring.
He experiences some stiffness in the morning.
Word forms
| singular | experience |
|---|
Common combinations
- share experiences
- Patients met to share experiences about treatment.
- life experiences
- Her life experiences shaped her writing.
- personal experiences
- He drew on personal experiences for the speech.
- learn from experiences
- We learn from experiences, good and bad.
- unforgettable experiences
- The trip gave us unforgettable experiences.
Synonyms and how they differ
- adventures
- This stresses exciting or risky events, while experiences covers any event, even dull ones.
- episodes
- This points to separate events within a longer story, with a narrower, narrative feel.
- encounters
- This stresses meeting a person or thing, not living through something.
- undergoes
- As a verb replacement, it implies something difficult or a process, while experiences is neutral.
Word family
- experience noun
- something lived through, or skill gained over time
- experienced adjective
- having skill from long practice
- inexperienced adjective
- lacking practice or knowledge
- experiential adjective
- based on experience
- experiential learning noun
- learning by doing
Commonly confused: experiences or experiments? experiences or expertise?
experiences vs experiments
Experiments are planned tests, usually scientific. Experiences are things that happen to someone.
experiences vs expertise
Expertise is skill or knowledge, while experiences are events lived through.
Practice
The students wrote about their ______ during the year abroad.
Choose one answer.
Experiences are events someone lives through. Experiments are tests, expenses are costs, and expertise is uncountable and does not take a plural here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “experiences”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.