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Increment vs Improvement - What's the difference?

increment | improvement | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between increment and improvement

is that increment is the action of increasing or becoming greater while improvement is the act of improving; advancement or growth; promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.

As a verb increment

is to increase by steps or by a step, especially by one.

increment

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The action of increasing or becoming greater.
  • * Woodward
    • the seminary that furnisheth matter for the formation and increment of animal and vegetable bodies
  • * Coleridge
    • A nation, to be great, ought to be compressed in its increment by nations more civilized than itself.
  • (heraldry) The waxing of the moon.
  • The amount of increase.
  • (rhetoric) An amplification without strict climax, as in the following passage: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, think on these things."

    • Derived terms

    * incremence (rare) * incremental

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (transitive) To increase by steps or by a step, especially by one.
  • *
  • *
  • *

    • Usage notes

    * Used in many technical fields, especially in mathematics and computing.

    Antonyms

    * decrement

    improvement

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Alternative forms

    * emprovement (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of improving]]; advancement or growth; [[promote, promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.
  • * (Robert South)
    • I look upon your city as the best place of improvement .
  • * (Hugh Blair)
    • Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.
  • * , chapter=19
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.
  • The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
  • * (Samuel Clarke)
    • A good improvement of his reason.
  • * (John Tillotson)
    • I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.
  • The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.
  • * (Joseph Addison)
    • The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.
  • Increase; growth; progress; advance.
  • * (Joseph Addison)
    • There is a design of publishing the history of architecture, with its several improvements and decays.
  • * (Robert South)
    • Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.
  • (plural): Valuable additions or betterments, as buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
  • (Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.

    • Synonyms

    * improval