Experiment

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪkˈsper.ɪ.mÉ™nt/

Origin

From Old French experiment (French: expérience), from Latin experimentum.

Full definition of experiment

Noun

1. A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy of something previously untried.
2. (obsolete) Experience, practical familiarity with something.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:Pilot ... Vpon his card and compas firmes his eye,
  The maisters of his long experiment,
  And to them does the steddy helme apply ....

Related terms

• experimental

Verb

1. (intransitive) To conduct an experiment.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To experience; to feel; to perceive; to detect.
• 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):The Earth, the which may have carried us about perpetually ... without our being ever able to experiment its rest.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To test or ascertain by experiment; to try out; to make an experiment on.
• 1481 William Caxton, The Mirrour of the World 1.5.22:Til they had experimented whiche was trewe, and who knewe most.

Derived terms

• experimenter