Progress

Pronunciation

• UK enPR: prō'grÄ•s, IPA: /ˈpɹəʊɡɹɛs/
• US enPR: prä'grÄ•s, IPA: /ˈprÉ‘É¡rÉ›s/
• Rhymes: -əʊɡrÉ›s, -É‘É¡rÉ›s

Alternative forms

• progreß archaic

From Old French progres ("a going forward"), from Latin prōgressus ("an advance"), from the participle stem of prōgredī ("to go forward, advance, develop"), from pro- ("forth, before") + gradi ("to walk, go").

Full definition of progress

Noun

1. Movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time. from 15th c.Testing for the new antidote is currently in progress.
2. Specifically, advancement to a higher or more developed state; development, growth. from 15th c.
• 2012-01, Stephen Ledoux, Behaviorism at 100, 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.
3. Science has made extraordinary progress in the last fifty years.
4. An official journey made by a monarch or other high personage; a state journey, a circuit. from 15th c.
• 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 124:With the king about to go on progress, the trials and executions were deliberately timed.
5. (now rare) A journey forward; travel. from 15th c.
• 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.
6. Movement onwards or forwards or towards a specific objective or direction; advance. from 16th c.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

Pronunciation

• enPR: prÉ™grÄ•s', IPA: /prəˈɡrÉ›s/

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

1. (intransitive) to move, go, or proceed forward; to advance.They progress through the museum.
• 2011, October 1, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland, 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.
2. (intransitive) to improve; to become better or more complete.Societies progress unevenly.
3. (transitive) 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