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Improvise vs Improvision - What's the difference?

improvise | improvision |

As a verb improvise

is .

As a noun improvision is

(obsolete) the lack of provision, a failure to provide something or improvision can be the act of improvising, or something improvised; improvisation.

improvise

English

Verb

  • To make something up or invent it as one goes on; to proceed guided only by imagination, instinct, and guesswork rather than by a careful plan.
    • He had no speech prepared, so he improvised .
    They improvised a simple shelter with branches and the rope they were carrying.
    She improvised a lovely solo.

    Synonyms

    * fly by the seat of one's pants, play by ear, punt, think on one's feet, wing it

    Derived terms

    * improvisation * improvisational

    See also

    * extemporaneous * impromptu * off the cuff ----

    improvision

    English

    Etymology 1

    From .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) The lack of provision, a failure to provide something.
  • *1646 , Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica , III.2:
  • *:there would be a main defect, and her improvision justly accusable, if such a feeding animal [...] should want a proper conveyance for choler, or have no other receptacle for that humour than the veins and general mass of blood.

    • Etymology 2

    From .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of improvising, or something improvised; improvisation
  • *{{quote-magazine
    • , year=1948 , author=Alexander Maxwell , title=Gauges—the Guide to Perfection , date=October 1948 , volume=90 , issue=4 , page=250 , magazine=Popular Mechanics , publisher=Hearst Magazines , issn=0032-4558 citation , passage=A similar improvision , a modification of the device used to measure the planar ways (photo 8), makes several measurements at once. }}
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=1987 , year_published=1988 , publisher=University of California Press , author=John Davis , title=Libyan Politics: Tribe and Revolution: An Account of the Zuwaya and their Government , chapter=The Libyan Contribution citation , isbn=9780520062948 , page=248 , passage=It was a revolution grounded in exoterics, which may account in some part for the general air of naivety and improvision which surrounds it.}}
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=1991 , publisher=Taylor & Francis , editor=David Williams , author=Martine Millon and Oliver Ortolanai , quotee=Yoshi Oida , title=Peter Brook and the Mahabharata: Critical Perspectives , chapter=Energy and the Ensemble: Actors' Perspectives , volume_plain=Part II Practitioners' accounts citation , isbn=9780415047784 , page=108 , passage=There are two general conceptions of improvision . The first, commonly applied is of a rather romantic woolly kind. It suggests that anything can happen in improvisation.}}
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=2005 , publisher=Jessica Kingsley Publishers , author=Daniel Gilbert Perret , title=Roots of Musicality: Music Therapy and Personal Development , section=Appendix 7: Improvisation Techniques in Music Therapy citation , isbn=9781843103363 , page=177 , passage=Tonal centring: Providing a tonal centre, scale, or harmonic ground as a base for the client's improvision }}