experiment

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experiment

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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-.

Noun

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ɪ.mənt/, /ɛkˈspɛɹ.ɪ.mənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, /ɪkˈspɪɹ.ə.mənt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: ex‧per‧i‧ment

Verb

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ɪ.mɛnt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mɛnt/

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 or likelihood of something previously untried.

   conduct an experiment

   carry out some experiments

   perform a scientific experiment

   • 1837, L E L, “The Laboratory”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 327:

     From her childhood she had been accustomed to watch, and often to aid, in her uncle's chemical experiments; she was, therefore, not at a loss, as a complete novice in the science would have been.

   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     South Korean officials announced last month that an experiment to create artificial rain did not provide the desired results.

2. (obsolete) Experience, practical familiarity with something.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: ">…] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Pilot Vpon his card and compas firmes his eye,
     The maisters of his long experiment,
     And to them does the steddy helme apply .

experiment (third-person singular simple present experiments, present participle experimenting, simple past and past participle experimented)

1. (intransitive) To conduct an experiment.

   We're going to experiment on rats.

   • 1951 October, “Models Assist Rolling Stock Design”, in Railway Magazine, page 647:

     As well as demonstrating operating facilities, full-size car body models are used for experimenting with new types of interior finish, systems of lighting, positioning of route diagrams and advertisements, and the best form of windscreens at doorways, and the height and location of handgrips and handrails.

   • 1978 August 19, David Brill, “California Here I Come!”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 5, page 10:

     Bob is a shameless tourist: Coit Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, Twin Peaks, ad infinitum. I think walking the streets with a map in hand looks dumb; experimenting is much more fun.

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, The Mirrour of the World, William Caxton, 1.5.22:

     Til they had experimented whiche was trewe, and who knewe most.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “experiment”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Borrowed from Latin experīmentum. First attested in 1460.

• IPA^(key): (Central)
• IPA^(key): (Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencia)

experiment m (plural experiments)

1. experiment

• experimental
• experimentar

• “experiment”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies , 2007 April
• “experiment” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “experiment” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from Latin experīmentum.

• IPA^(key):

• Audio:

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experiment m inan

1. experiment

   Synonym: pokus

   provést experiment ― to perform an experiment

• “experiment”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “experiment”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “experiment”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

From Middle Dutch experiment, from Old French experiment, from Latin experimentum.

• IPA^(key): /ˌɛks.peː.riˈmɛnt/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: ex‧pe‧ri‧ment
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

experiment n (plural experimenten, diminutive experimentje n)

1. experiment

   Synonyms: proef, test

• → Indonesian: eksperimen

From Latin experīmentum.

experiment m (plural experiments)

1. experiment

• experimentar

Borrowed from Latin experimentum.

experiment n (plural experimente)

1. experiment

Borrowed from Latin experīmentum, attested from 1682.

• IPA^(key): /ɛksp(ɛ)rɪˈmɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

experiment n

1. experiment

• experimentell

• experiment in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• experiment in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)