progress

From Middle English progresse, 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”). Displaced native Old English forþgang.

• (UK) enPR: prō'grĕs, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊɡɹɛs/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) enPR: prä'grĕs, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑɡɹɛs/, /-ɹəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹoʊɡɹɛs/
• Rhymes: -əʊɡɹɛs, -ɒɡɹɛs

progress (usually uncountable, plural progresses)

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.]
   • 1983, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXVIII, in The Citadel of the Autarch (The Book of the New Sun; 4), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 239:

     You wish for progress? The Ascians have it. They are deafened by it, crazed by the death of Nature till they are ready to accept Erebus and the rest as gods.

   • 2012 January, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, page 60:

     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.

3. An official journey made by a monarch or other high personage; a state journey, a circuit. [from 15th c.]
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 7, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     ... Queen Elizabeth in one of her progresses, stopping at Crawley to breakfast, was so delighted with some remarkably fine Hampshire beer which was then presented to her by the Crawley of the day (a handsome gentleman with a trim beard and a good leg), that she forthwith erected Crawley into a borough to send two members to Parliament ...

   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 124:

     With the king about to go on progress, the trials and executions were deliberately timed.

4. (now rare) A journey forward; travel. [from 15th c.]
   • 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     Now Tim began to be struck with these loitering progresses along the garden boundaries in the gloaming, and wondered what they boded.

5. Movement onwards or forwards or towards a specific objective or direction; advance. [from 16th c.]

   The thick branches overhanging the path made progress difficult.

• To make progress is often used instead of the verb progress. This allows complex modification of progress in ways that cannot be well approximated by adverbs modifying the verb. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

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

• enPR: prəgrĕs', IPA^(key): /pɹəˈɡɹɛs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

progress (third-person singular simple present progresses, present participle progressing, simple past and past participle progressed)

1. (intransitive) To move, go, or proceed forward; to advance.

   Visitors progress through the museum at their own pace.

   • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎:

     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 develop.

   Societies progress unevenly.

   1. (by extension) To improve; to become better or more complete.
3. (transitive) To expedite.
   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 266:

     Or […] they came to progress matters in which Dudley had taken a hand, and left defrauded or bound over to the king.

• regress
• retrogress

• “progress”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “progress”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Via other European languages, ultimately borrowed from Latin prōgressus (“an advance”), from the participle stem of prōgredī (“to go forward, advance, develop”), from pro- (“forth, before”) + gradi (“to walk, go”).

progress m (1st declension)

1. progress (development, esp. to a higher, fuller, more advanced state; transition from a lower to a higher level)

   Synonyms: attīstība, evolūcija

   sociālais progress ― social progress

   cilvēces progress ― humanity's progress

   ražošanas efektivitātes paaugstināšanās pamats ir zinātniski tehniskais progress ― the basis for the increase in production effectivity is scientific and technical progress

   mākslas progress - tā nav vienkārša attīstība ― art progress: this is no simple evolution