experiment

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a venture at something new or different

   As an experiment, I decided to grow a beard.

2. 2
   noun

   the testing of an idea

   it was an experiment in living

3. 3
   verb

   to conduct a test or investigation

   We are experimenting with the new drug in order to fight this disease

4. 4
   verb

   try something new, as in order to gain experience

   Students experiment sexually

5. 5
   noun

   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

6. 6
   noun

   Experience, practical familiarity with something.

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

7. 7
   verb

   To conduct an experiment.

   We're going to experiment on rats.

8. 8
   verb

   To experience; to feel; to perceive; to detect.

   The Earth, the which may have carried us about perpetually ... without our being ever able to experiment its rest.

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-.