Encounter vs. Experience — What's the Difference?

A meeting, especially one that is unplanned, unexpected, or brief

Experience is the process through which conscious organisms perceive the world around them. Experiences can be accompanied by active awareness on the part of the person having the experience, although they need not be.

A hostile or adversarial confrontation

The apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the senses or mind

To meet, especially unexpectedly; come upon

Active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill

To confront in battle or competition

The knowledge or skill so derived.

To experience or undergo

An event or a series of events participated in or lived through.

To meet, especially unexpectedly.

The totality of such events in the past of an individual or group.

(transitive) To meet (someone) or find (something), especially unexpectedly.

To participate in personally; undergo

(transitive) To confront (someone or something) face to face.

The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or suffering.

(ambitransitive) To engage in conflict, as with an enemy.

(countable) An activity one has performed.

To execute someone extrajudicially.

(countable) A collection of events and/or activities from which an individual or group may gather knowledge, opinions, and skills.

A meeting, especially one that is unplanned or unexpected.

(uncountable) The knowledge thus gathered.

A hostile, often violent meeting; a confrontation, skirmish, or clash, as between combatants.

Trial; a test or experiment.

(sports) A match between two opposing sides.

(transitive) To observe certain events; undergo a certain feeling or process; or perform certain actions that may alter one or contribute to one's knowledge, opinions, or skills.

(sexuality) A sexual encounter; sexual activity, especially unplanned or unexpected, between people not in a sexual relationship, that usually does not lead to the establishment of a relationship, and may or may not happen again. A sexual encounter could be consensual or non-consensual; in the latter case, it is a sexual assault. A consensual sexual encounter that happens only once is commonly known as a one-night stand.

Trial, as a test or experiment.

(Indian English) An extrajudicial killing or execution.

The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or suffering.

To come against face to face; to meet; to confront, either by chance, suddenly, or deliberately; especially, to meet in opposition or with hostile intent; to engage in conflict with; to oppose; to struggle with; as, to encounter a friend in traveling; two armies encounter each other; to encounter obstacles or difficulties, to encounter strong evidence of a truth.

An act of knowledge, one or more, by which single facts or general truths are ascertained; experimental or inductive knowledge; hence, implying skill, facility, or practical wisdom gained by personal knowledge, feeling or action; as, a king without experience of war.

To meet face to face; to have a meeting; to meet, esp. as enemies; to engage in combat; to fight; as, three armies encountered at Waterloo.

To make practical acquaintance with; to try personally; to prove by use or trial; to have trial of; to have the lot or fortune of; to have befall one; to be affected by; to feel; as, to experience pain or pleasure; to experience poverty; to experience a change of views.

A meeting face to face; a running against; a sudden or incidental meeting; an interview.

To exercise; to train by practice.

A meeting, with hostile purpose; hence, a combat; a battle; as, a bloody encounter.

The accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities;

A minor short-term fight

The content of direct observation or participation in an event;

A casual or unexpected convergence;

An event as apprehended;

A casual meeting with a person of thing

Go or live through;

A hostile disagreement face-to-face

Have firsthand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or sensations;

Come together;

Of mental or physical states or experiences;

Come upon, as if by accident; meet with;

Undergo an emotional sensation;

Be beset by;

Undergo;

Experience as a reaction;

Contend against an opponent in a sport, game, or battle;