Experimentation

How to spell experimentation

15 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce experimentation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does experimentation mean?

1. nounThe action or process of trying out new ideas, methods, or activities to discover or test something.

Experimentation in a sentence

• Years of careful experimentation led the team to a reliable vaccine.

• The company encourages experimentation with new working patterns.

Where does experimentation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb experiri, meaning 'to try' or 'to put to the test', which was built from the prefix ex-, 'out', and a root related to periculum, meaning 'a trial' or 'risk' (the same root that gives us 'peril'). From experiri came the Latin noun experimentum, 'a trial or proof', which passed into Old French and then into English in the late 1300s as 'experiment'. The longer form 'experimentation', describing the ongoing process or practice of carrying out experiments, was assembled later by adding the noun-forming ending -ation, becoming common in scientific writing from the 1600s and 1700s onward. A useful memory hook is that 'experience', 'expert', and 'peril' all share that same Latin idea of putting something to the test. The spelling is long but regular: keep the 'i' in the middle (experIment) before the -ation, and remember it follows the same pattern as the base word 'experiment'.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• peri (try, test)
• -ment (result of action)
• -ation (noun of process)