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Practice vs Improvement - What's the difference?

practice | improvement |

As nouns the difference between practice and improvement

is that practice is repetition of an activity to improve skill 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 practice

is to repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.

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

    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