performance

[per-fawr-muhns]

noun

1. a musical, dramatic, or other entertainment presented before an audience.

2. the act of performing a ceremony, play, piece of music, etc.

3. the execution or accomplishment of work, acts, feats, etc.

4. a particular action, deed, or proceeding.

5. an action or proceeding of an unusual or spectacular kind.

   His temper tantrum was quite a performance.

6. the act of performing.

7. the manner in which or the efficiency with which something reacts or fulfills its intended purpose.

8. Linguistics.,  the actual use of language in real situations, which may or may not fully reflect a speaker's competence, being subject to such nonlinguistic factors as inattention, distraction, memory lapses, fatigue, or emotional state.

performance

/ pəˈfɔːməns /

noun

1. the act, process, or art of performing

2. an artistic or dramatic production

   last night's performance was terrible

3. manner or quality of functioning

   a machine's performance

4. informal,  mode of conduct or behaviour, esp when distasteful or irregular

   what did you mean by that performance at the restaurant?

5. informal,  any tiresome procedure

   what a performance dressing the children to play in the snow!

6. any accomplishment

7. linguistics (in transformational grammar) the form of the human language faculty, viewed as concretely embodied in speakers Compare competence langue parole

Other Word Forms

• misperformance noun
• reperformance noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of performance¹

First recorded in 1485–95; perform + -ance

Example Sentences

The movie rarely stops to survey the field, and instead keeps plowing forward with Byrne behind the wheel, delivering a raw, emotionally complex performance that’s more honest than intentionally provocative.

Read more on Salon

In the city centre, a new venue opened and staged a Torvill and Dean performance on its opening night.

Read more on BBC

For investors worried about picking the right firm to work with, it’s comforting to know that private-credit returns have had far less performance dispersion than private equity.

Read more on MarketWatch

Meanwhile, Judge is still very much at the height of his powers, having just delivered perhaps his best performance yet.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Past stock-market performance has clearly shown that investors who buy stocks at record highs have achieved strong returns over the long run.

Read more on MarketWatch

Related Words

• act 
• appearance 
• behavior 
• concert 
• dance 
• display 
• drama 
• opera 
• play 
• portrayal 
• presentation 
• production 
• show