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Success vs Progress - What's the difference?

success | progress |

As nouns the difference between success and progress

is that success is something which happens as a consequence; the outcome or result while progress is movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time.

As a proper noun Success

is a town in Arkansas.

As a verb progress is

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

success

Alternative forms

* successe (archaic)

Noun

  • (obsolete) Something which happens as a consequence; the outcome or result.
  • * 1644 , (John Milton), Aeropagitica :
  • I suppose them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little alter'd and mov'd inwardly in their mindes: Some with doubt of what will be the successe , others with fear of what will be the censure; some with hope, others with confidence of what they have to speake.
  • The achievement of one's aim or goal.
  • His third attempt to pass the entrance exam was a success .
  • (business) financial profitability.
  • Don't let success go to your head.
  • One who, or that which, achieves assumed goals.
  • Scholastically, he was a success .
    The new range of toys has been a resounding success .
  • The fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame.
  • She is country music's most recent success .

    Antonyms

    * failure

    Derived terms

    * nothing succeeds like success * successful * successfully

    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