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Practice vs Improve - What's the difference?

practice | improve |

As verbs the difference between practice and improve

is that practice is (us) to repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity while improve is (lb) to make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).

As a noun practice

is repetition of an activity to improve skill.

practice

Alternative forms

* (British) practise (used only for the verb )

Noun

(practices)
  • Repetition of an activity to improve skill.
  • He will need lots of practice with the lines before he performs them.
  • (uncountable) The ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession, particularly in medicine or the fine arts.
  • (countable) A place where a professional service is provided, such as a general practice.
  • She ran a thriving medical practice .
  • The observance of religious duties that a church requires of its members.
  • A customary action, habit, or behavior; a manner or routine.
  • It is the usual practice of employees there to wear neckties only when meeting with customers.
    It is good practice to check each door and window before leaving.
  • Actual operation or experiment, in contrast to theory.
  • That may work in theory, but will it work in practice ?
  • (legal) The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts.
  • This firm of solicitors is involved in family law practice .
  • Skilful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; stratagem; artifice.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • He sought to have that by practice which he could not by prayer.
    (Francis Bacon)
  • (math) A easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business.
  • Usage notes

    British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English distinguish between practice'' (a noun) and ''practise (a verb), analogously with advice/advise. In American English, practice is commonly used for both forms, and this is also common in Canada.

    Synonyms

    * (improvement of skill) rehearsal, drill, exercise, training, workout * (customary action) custom, habit, routine, wont, wone * fashion, pattern, trick, way, dry run, trial

    Derived terms

    * general practice * overpractice * practice makes perfect * practice what one preaches * put into practice * sharp practice

    Verb

    (practic)
  • (US) To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.
  • You should practice playing piano every day.
  • (US) To repeat an activity in this way.
  • If you want to speak French well, you need to practice .
  • (US) To perform or observe in a habitual fashion.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=John T. Jost , title=Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)? , volume=100, issue=2, page=162 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.}}
    They gather to practice religion every Saturday.
  • (US) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
  • She practiced law for forty years before retiring.
  • (intransitive, archaic, US) To conspire.
  • Usage notes

    * In sense "to repeat an activity as a way improving one's skill" this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Derived terms

    * practiced * practicing

    improve

    English

    Alternative forms

    * emprove (obsolete)

    Verb

    (improv)
  • (lb) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
  • :
  • :
  • *{{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. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • (lb) To become better.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:“My Continental prominence is improving ,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
  • (lb) To disprove or make void; to refute.
  • *(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)
  • *:Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another cannot improve .
  • (lb) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
  • :
  • :(Chapman)
  • *(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)
  • *:When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing.
  • (lb) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
  • :
  • *(Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)
  • *:We shall especially honour God by improving diligently the talents which God hath committed to us.
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved
  • *(William Blackstone) (1723-1780)
  • *:The court seldom fails to improve the opportunity.
  • *(Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)
  • *:How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.
  • *(George Washington) (1732-1799)
  • *:True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.
  • Synonyms

    * (to make something better) ameliorate, better, batten, enhance * See also

    Antonyms

    * (to make something worse) deteriorate, worsen * (to become worse) deteriorate, worsen

    Derived terms

    * improvement