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Achieve vs Progress - What's the difference?

achieve | progress |

In lang=en terms the difference between achieve and progress

is that achieve is to obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win while progress is to move (something) forward; to advance, to expedite.

As verbs the difference between achieve and progress

is that achieve is to succeed in something, now especially in academic performance while progress is to move, go, or proceed forward; to advance.

As a noun progress is

movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time.

achieve

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete )

Verb

(achiev)
  • To succeed in something, now especially in academic performance.
  • To carry out successfully; to accomplish.
  • * I. Taylor
  • Supposing faculties and powers to be the same, far more may be achieved in any line by the aid of a capital, invigorating motive than without it.
  • (obsolete) To conclude, finish, especially successfully.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.1:
  • Full many Countreyes they did overronne, / From the uprising to the setting Sunne, / And many hard adventures did atchieve [...].
  • To obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2013, date=January 22, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
  • , title= Aston Villa 2-1 Bradford (3-4) , passage=Bradford may have lost on the night but they stubbornly protected a 3-1 first-leg advantage to emulate a feat last achieved by Rochdale in 1962.}}
  • * (William Shakespeare), (Twelfth Night), II-v
  • Some are born great, some achieve greatness.
  • *
  • Thou hast achieved our liberty.
  • (obsolete) To conclude, to turn out.
  • * Prior
  • Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved .
  • * (William Shakespeare), (Othello), II-i
  • He hath achieved a maid / That paragons description.

    Synonyms

    * accomplish, effect, fulfil, fulfill, complete, execute, perform, realize, obtain. See accomplish

    Derived terms

    * achievement * achiever

    progress

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

  • Movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time.
  • Testing for the new antidote is currently in progress .
  • Specifically, advancement to a higher or more developed state; development, growth.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Stephen Ledoux , title=Behaviorism at 100 , volume=100, issue=1, page=60 , magazine= citation , passage=Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.}}
    Science has made extraordinary progress in the last fifty years.
  • An official journey made by a monarch or other high personage; a state journey, a circuit.
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 124:
  • With the king about to go on progress , the trials and executions were deliberately timed.
  • * 1887 , (Thomas Hardy), The Woodlanders :
  • Now Tim began to be struck with these loitering progresses along the garden boundaries in the gloaming, and wondered what they boded.
  • Movement onwards or forwards or towards a specific objective or direction; advance.
  • The thick branches overhanging the path made progress difficult.
    Usage notes
    * To make progress'' is often used instead of the verb ''progress''. This allows complex modification of ''progress in ways that can not be well approximated by adverbs modifying the verb. See

    Etymology 2

    From the noun. Lapsed into disuse in the 17th century, except in the US. Considered an Americanism on reintroduction to use in the UK.

    Verb

    (es)
  • to move, go, or proceed forward; to advance.
  • They progress through the museum.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Tom Fordyce , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.}}
  • to improve; to become better or more complete.
  • Societies progress unevenly.
  • To move (something) forward; to advance, to expedite.
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 266:
  • Or […] they came to progress matters in which Dudley had taken a hand, and left defrauded or bound over to the king.
    Antonyms
    * congress * regress * retrogress