• Experiment

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ɪkˈsper.ɪ.mÉ™nt/

    Origin

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

    Full definition of experiment

    Noun

    experiment

    (plural experiments)
    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

    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

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