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Progress vs Improvement - What's the difference?

progress | improvement |

As nouns the difference between progress and improvement

is that progress is movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time 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 progress

is to move, go, or proceed forward; to advance.

progress

English

(wikipedia progress)

Alternative forms

* (archaic)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Noun

  • Movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time.
    • Testing for the new antidote is currently in progress .
  • Specifically, advancement to a higher or more developed state; development, growth.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
    • , author=Stephen Ledoux , title=Behaviorism at 100 , volume=100, issue=1, page=60 , magazine= citation , passage=Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.}}
    Science has made extraordinary progress in the last fifty years.
  • An official journey made by a monarch or other high personage; a state journey, a circuit.
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 124:
    • With the king about to go on progress , the trials and executions were deliberately timed.
  • * 1887 , (Thomas Hardy), The Woodlanders :
    • Now Tim began to be struck with these loitering progresses along the garden boundaries in the gloaming, and wondered what they boded.
  • Movement onwards or forwards or towards a specific objective or direction; advance.
    • The thick branches overhanging the path made progress difficult.
    Usage notes
    * To make progress'' is often used instead of the verb ''progress''. This allows complex modification of ''progress in ways that can not be well approximated by adverbs modifying the verb. See

    Etymology 2

    From the noun. Lapsed into disuse in the 17th century, except in the US. Considered an Americanism on reintroduction to use in the UK.

    Verb

    (es)
  • to move, go, or proceed forward; to advance.
    • They progress through the museum.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Tom Fordyce , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.}}
  • to improve; to become better or more complete.
    • Societies progress unevenly.
  • To move (something) forward; to advance, to expedite.
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 266:
    • Or […] they came to progress matters in which Dudley had taken a hand, and left defrauded or bound over to the king.
    Antonyms
    * congress * regress * retrogress

    Related terms

    * congress * ingress * egress * regress * grade * progressive * progressivism * progressivist * progression

    External links

    * * English heteronyms ----

    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