曾经 has already been well explained here, but I sometimes see
...曾 verb...
as opposed to
...曾经 verb...
Is there a difference in meaning or usage?
There are many verbs and adverbs in Chinese that hold the exact meaning without the second character. Chinese words have a more complete sound to them when they are in pairs of two characters, but it's not necessary to use the verb or adverb in its complete form.
我也曾(经)涉足于多个领域,可惜学业不精。
他已(经)20岁了,已(经)到及冠之年,是个大人了。
好久没有这样安恬熟睡(觉)了。
Having the two different choices though gives the speaker more control over making the sentence sound more fluid, generally by pairing single character words with the single character form, and using the full verb with two character form.
plus, 曾 can not be used instead of 曾经, and 曾经 can not be used instead of 曾 here,
曾经,我犯了一个错。
曾几何时,我学会了抽烟。
In conclusion, when you use "曾经" in the middle of one sentence, you can always use "曾" instead. Otherwise, you can not.
曾 can be used with the same meaning as 曾经
But one occasion is noteworthy: 不曾 - where you can't use 不曾经
Thanks for undeleting me. I wanted originally to post this answer as a comment. But I'm a new user here, while it requires 50 reputation to post a comment.
曾经沧海难为水
(Having ever experienced the ocean, one can hardly call water elsewhere as water). As the meaning of "经(experience)" is general, in modern Chinese, 曾经 becomes a word, so you can even say他 曾经 经历过 地震 = 他 曾 经历过 地震.