Experiment
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried.
"conduct an experiment"
- 2 the act of conducting a controlled test or investigation wordnet
- 3 Experience, practical familiarity with something. obsolete
"Pilot [...] Vpon his card and compas firmes his eye, The maisters of his long experiment, And to them does the steddy helme apply [...]."
- 4 a venture at something new or different wordnet
- 5 the testing of an idea wordnet
- 1 To conduct an experiment. intransitive
"We're going to experiment on rats."
- 2 to conduct a test or investigation wordnet
- 3 To experience; to feel; to perceive; to detect. obsolete, transitive
"The Earth, the which may have carried us about perpetually ... without our being ever able to experiment its rest."
- 4 try something new, as in order to gain experience wordnet
- 5 To test or ascertain by experiment; to try out; to make an experiment on. obsolete, transitive
"Til they had experimented whiche was trewe, and who knewe most."
Example
More examples"We found the failure of the experiment at the last moment."
Etymology
From Middle English experiment, from Old French esperiment (French expérience), from Latin experimentum (“experience, attempt, experiment”), from experior (“to experience, to attempt”), itself from ex + *perior, in turn from Proto-Indo-European *per-.
Related phrases
More for "experiment"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.