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Practise vs Improvement - What's the difference?

practise | improvement |

As a verb practise

is (transitive|british|canada|australia|new zealand|ireland) to repeat as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.

As a noun improvement is

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.

practise

English

Alternative forms

* practice (standard for noun but incorrect for verb outside US; almost universal for both in American English)

Verb

(practis)
  • (transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To repeat as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.
  • You should practise playing piano every day.
  • (intransitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To repeat an activity in this way.
  • If you want to speak French well, you need to practise .
  • (transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To perform or observe in a habitual fashion.
  • They gather to practise religion every Saturday.
  • (transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
  • She practised law for forty years before retiring.
  • (intransitive, obsolete, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To conspire.
  • To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practise your severity.''
  • * Alexander Pope
  • As this advice ye practise or neglect.
  • To make use of; to employ.
  • * Massinger
  • In malice to this good knight's wife, I practised Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.
  • To teach or accustom by practice; to train.
  • * Landor
  • In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practised to love their neighbour.

    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

    * practised * practising

    Anagrams

    *

    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