experiment meaning as verb

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Definition of experiment

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Definition of experiment  (Entry 2 of 2)

intransitive verb

• experimentation

Examples of experiment in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'experiment.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Middle English, "testing, proof, remedy," borrowed from Anglo-French esperiment, borrowed from Latin experīmentum "testing, experience, proof," from experīrī "to put to the test, attempt, have experience of, undergo" + -mentum -ment — more at experience entry 1

verbal derivative of experiment entry 1

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

1787, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing experiment

• control experiment
• controlled experiment
• experiment station
• pre - experiment
• thought experiment

Articles Related to experiment

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This is the Difference Between a Hypothesis and a Theory

In scientific reasoning, they're two completely different things

Dictionary Entries Near experiment

experiential time

experimental

Cite this Entry

“Experiment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/experiment. Accessed 25 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of experiment.

Kids Definition of experiment  (Entry 2 of 2)

Medical Definition

Medical definition of experiment.

Medical Definition of experiment  (Entry 2 of 2)

More from Merriam-Webster on experiment

Nglish: Translation of experiment for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of experiment for Arabic Speakers

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[ noun ik- sper - uh -m uh nt ; verb ek- sper - uh -ment ]

a chemical experiment; a teaching experiment; an experiment in living.

a product that is the result of long experiment.

Synonyms: investigation , research

• Obsolete. experience .

verb (used without object)

to experiment with a new procedure.

• a test or investigation, esp one planned to provide evidence for or against a hypothesis: a scientific experiment
• the act of conducting such an investigation or test; experimentation; research

a poetic experiment

• an obsolete word for experience
• intr to make an experiment or experiments

/ ĭk-spĕr ′ ə-mənt /

• A test or procedure carried out under controlled conditions to determine the validity of a hypothesis or make a discovery.
• See Note at hypothesis

Derived Forms

• exˈperiˌmenter , noun

Other Words From

• ex·peri·menter ex·peri·mentor ex·peri·men·tator noun
• preex·peri·ment noun
• proex·peri·ment adjective
• reex·peri·ment verb (used without object) noun
• unex·peri·mented adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of experiment 1

Synonym Study

Example sentences.

IBM hopes that a platform like RoboRXN could dramatically speed up that process by predicting the recipes for compounds and automating experiments.

The hope there is for improved sensitivity in searches for dark matter or experiments that might reveal some long-sought flaws in our standard model of particle physics.

The experiment represents early progress toward the possible development of an ultra-secure communications network beamed from space.

The new experiment represents, however, the first time scientists have applied machine learning to “validation,” a further step toward confirming results that involves additional statistical calculation.

At first, the sites amounted to experiments on the outer edges of the crypto universe, but in 2020 they have started to attract real money.

To put it rather uncharitably, the USPHS practiced a major dental experiment on a city full of unconsenting subjects.

If the noble experiment of American democracy is to mean anything, it is fidelity to the principle of freedom.

A classroom experiment seeks to demonstrate what it looks like.

This video, courtesy of BuzzFeed, tries a bit of an experiment to get some answers.

In the fall of 1992, Booker became a vegetarian “as an experiment,” he said, “and I was surprised by how much my body took to it.”

With Bacon, experientia does not always mean observation; and may mean either experience or experiment.

I made the experiment two years ago, and all my experience since has corroborated the conclusion then arrived at.

But this is quite enough to justify the inconsiderable expense which the experiment I urge would involve.

He commenced to experiment in electro-pneumatics in the year 1860, and early in 1861 communicated his discoveries to Mr. Barker.

Readers will doubtless be familiar with the well-known experiment illustrating this point.

Related Words

• examination
• experimentation
• observation
• undertaking

• 1.1 Etymology
• 1.2 Pronunciation
• 1.3.1 Derived terms
• 1.3.2 Translations
• 1.4.1 Derived terms
• 1.4.2 Translations
• 1.4.3 References
• 2.1 Etymology
• 2.2 Pronunciation
• 2.3.1 Derived terms
• 2.4 References
• 2.5 Further reading
• 3.1 Etymology
• 3.2 Pronunciation
• 3.3.1 Declension
• 3.3.2 Related terms
• 3.4 Further reading
• 4.1 Etymology
• 4.2 Pronunciation
• 4.3.1 Related terms
• 4.3.2 Descendants
• 5.1 Etymology
• 5.2.1 Related terms
• 6.1 Etymology
• 6.2.1 Declension
• 7.1 Etymology
• 7.2 Pronunciation
• 7.3.1 Declension
• 7.3.2 Related terms
• 7.4 References

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- .

Pronunciation

• ( UK ) IPA ( key ) : /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ɪ.mənt/ , /ɛkˈspɛɹ.ɪ.mənt/
• Hyphenation: ex‧per‧i‧ment

experiment ( plural experiments )

• 1837 , L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon ], “The Laboratory”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides.   [ … ] , 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.
• 1590 , Edmund Spenser , “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene.   [ … ] , London: [ … ] [ John Wolfe ] 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 [...].

Derived terms

• blue bottle experiment
• control experiment
• double-slit experiment
• experimental
• factorial experiment
• forbidden experiment
• ganzfeld experiment
• gedanken experiment
• Hughes-Drever experiment
• Michelson-Morley experiment
• Milgram experiment
• noble experiment
• science experiment
• sexperiment
• Stern-Gerlach experiment
• thought experiment
• Valsalvian experiment
• Wizard of Oz experiment

Translations

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

• 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.
• 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.
• 1481 , The Mirrour of the World , William Caxton, 1.5.22 : Til they had experimented whiche was trewe, and who knewe most.
• experimenter
• 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. [ 1 ]

• IPA ( key ) : ( Central ) [əks.pə.ɾiˈmen]
• IPA ( key ) : ( Balearic ) [əks.pə.ɾiˈment]
• IPA ( key ) : ( Valencia ) [eks.pe.ɾiˈment]

experiment   m ( plural experiments )

• experimentar
• ^ “ experiment ”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana , Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana , 2024

Further reading

• “experiment” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició , Institut d’Estudis Catalans .
• “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 ) : [ˈɛkspɛrɪmɛnt]

experiment   m   inan

• experiment Synonym: pokus provést experiment ― to perform an experiment

Related terms

• experimentální
• experimentovat
• “ 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)

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

• IPA ( key ) : /ˌɛks.peː.riˈmɛnt/
• Hyphenation: ex‧pe‧ri‧ment
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

experiment   n ( plural experimenten , diminutive experimentje   n )

• experiment Synonyms: proef , test
• experimentatie
• experimenteel
• experimenteren

Descendants

From Latin experīmentum .

experiment   m ( plural experiments )

Borrowed from Latin experimentum .

experiment   n ( plural experimente )

Borrowed from Latin experīmentum , attested from 1682. [ 1 ]

• IPA ( key ) : /ɛksp(ɛ)rɪˈmɛnt/

experiment   n

• experimentell
• ^ experiment in  Svensk ordbok .
• experiment in Svenska Akademiens ordlista ( SAOL )
• experiment in Svenska Akademiens ordbok ( SAOB )

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• English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *per- (risk)
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ex·per·i·ment

Ex•per•i•ment.

If you have experience of something, you have seen it, done it, or felt it.

An experience is something that happens to you or something that you do.

You say that someone has an experience.

Be Careful! Don't say that someone ' makes an experience '.

Don't use 'experience' to refer to a scientific test that is carried out in order to discover or prove something. Use experiment .

You usually say that someone does , conducts , or carries out an experiment.

Be Careful! Don't say that someone ' makes an experiment '.

• A. A. Michelson
• Albert Abraham Michelson
• Albert Michelson
• Banting Frederick Grant
• Bernoulli trial
• between-subjects design
• binomial experiment
• by experimentation
• computational fluid dynamics
• confirmable
• control condition
• control experiment
• controllability
• controllable
• expenditure
• expense account
• Expense magazine
• expense record
• Expensefull
• Expenseless
• expensively
• expensiveness
• expergefacient
• expergefaction
• expergefactor
• experience table
• experienced
• experienceless
• experiencer
• experiential
• experientialism
• experientialist
• experiment station
• experimental
• experimental condition
• experimental extinction
• experimental method
• experimental procedure
• experimental psychology
• experimental variable
• experimentalism
• experimentalist
• experimentalize
• experimentally
• Experimentarian
• experimentation
• experimentative
• Experimentator
• experimenter
• experimenter bias
• experimenter effect
• experimentist
• experrection
• expert evidence
• expert opinion
• expert system
• Experiential and Service-Learning
• Experiential Astrology
• experiential aura
• Experiential Compatibility Resourcing
• Experiential Learning Activity
• Experiential Learning Center
• Experiential Learning Design Team
• Experiential Learning Ecuadorian Program
• Experiential Learning International
• Experiential Learning Service
• Experiential marketing
• Experiential Program for Preparing School Principals
• Experiential Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy
• Experiential Training and Development Alliance
• Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich and Connective
• experiential-existential group therapy
• Experientialism
• Experientialist
• experientially
• Expérientiel et Développement Personnel
• experiment (up)on (someone or something)
• Experiment and Development Flotilla
• Experiment Apparatus Container
• Experiment Assurance System
• Experiment Checkout Equipment Processor
• Experiment Computer
• Experiment Computer Input Output
• Experiment Computer Input/Output
• Experiment Computer Operating System
• Experiment Computing Grid Integration
• Experiment Container
• Experiment Control Center
• Experiment Control System
• Experiment Control Unit
• Experiment Data Management Plan
• Experiment Description Language
• Experiment design
• Experiment Design Made Easy
• Experiment Driver
• Experiment Environmental Unit
• Experiment Exposure Control Canister
• Experiment Flight Applications
• Experiment for Coordinated Helioseismic Observations
• Experiment for Regional Sources and Sinks of Oxidants
• Experiment Functional Objectives Requirements Document
• Experiment Gridded Data Record
• Experiment Ground Data Assembly
• Experiment Ground Support Equipment
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Definition of 'experiment'

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experiment in American English

Experiment in british english, examples of 'experiment' in a sentence experiment, related word partners experiment, trends of experiment.

View usage over: Since Exist Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

Browse alphabetically experiment

• experientialism
• experientialist
• experientially
• experiment fails
• experiment involves
• experiment proves
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'E'

Related terms of experiment

• bold experiment
• experiment uses
• fun experiment
• lab experiment
• pre-experiment
• View more related words

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Meaning of experiment in Essential American English Dictionary

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(Definition of experiment from the Webster's Essential Mini Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of experiment

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Word of the Day

soft, loose clothing that is worn in bed and consists of trousers and a type of shirt

Cooking or hitting the books? (Idioms with ‘book’)

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Definition of experiment noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

• formulate/advance a theory/hypothesis
• build/construct/create/develop a simple/theoretical/mathematical model
• develop/establish/provide/use a theoretical/conceptual framework/an algorithm
• advance/argue/develop the thesis that…
• explore an idea/a concept/a hypothesis
• make a prediction/an inference
• base a prediction/your calculations on something
• investigate/evaluate/accept/challenge/reject a theory/hypothesis/model
• design an experiment/a questionnaire/a study/a test
• do research/an experiment/an analysis
• make observations/calculations
• take/record measurements
• carry out/conduct/perform an experiment/a test/a longitudinal study/observations/clinical trials
• run an experiment/a simulation/clinical trials
• repeat an experiment/a test/an analysis
• replicate a study/the results/the findings
• observe/study/examine/investigate/assess a pattern/a process/a behavior
• fund/support the research/project/study
• seek/provide/get/secure funding for research
• collect/gather/extract data/information
• yield data/evidence/similar findings/the same results
• analyze/examine the data/soil samples/a specimen
• consider/compare/interpret the results/findings
• fit the data/model
• confirm/support/verify a prediction/a hypothesis/the results/the findings
• prove a conjecture/hypothesis/theorem
• draw/make/reach the same conclusions
• read/review the records/literature
• describe/report an experiment/a study
• present/publish/summarize the results/findings
• present/publish/read/review/cite a paper in a scientific journal

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