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Progress vs Attempt - What's the difference?

progress | attempt |

As nouns the difference between progress and attempt

is that progress is movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time while attempt is the action of trying at something.

As verbs the difference between progress and attempt

is that progress is to move, go, or proceed forward; to advance while attempt is to try.

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

    attempt

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To try.
  • I attempted to sing, but my throat was too hoarse.
    to attempt an escape from prison
  • * Longfellow
  • Something attempted , something done, / Has earned a night's repose.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz
  • , title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
  • (obsolete) To try to move, by entreaty, by afflictions, or by temptations; to tempt.
  • * Thackeray
  • It made the laughter of an afternoon / That Vivien should attempt the blameless king.
  • (archaic) To try to win, subdue, or overcome.
  • one who attempts the virtue of a woman
  • * Shakespeare
  • Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further: / Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute.
  • (archaic) To attack; to make an effort or attack upon; to try to take by force.
  • to attempt the enemy's camp
  • * Motley
  • without attempting his adversary's life

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    * take a stab at, take a run at

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The action of trying at something.
  • * We made an attempt to cross the stream, but didn't manage.
  • * This poem is much better than the feeble attempt of mine.
  • * It was worth the attempt .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea}}
  • An assault or attack, especially an assassination attempt.
  • * 1584' ''No man can charge us of any '''attempt against the realm. (Allen's Defence Of English Catholics, cited after Edinburgh review 1883, p. 378)
  • Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "attempt": first, failed, desperate, last, half-hearted, unsuccessful, serious, successful, feeble, new, honest, vain, sincere, ambitious, earnest, clumsy, direct, hard, brilliant, official, useless, clever, sophisticated, amateurish.

    Synonyms

    * effort * try

    Statistics

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