improvement

[ im-proov-muhnt ]

noun

1. an act of improving or the state of being improved.
2. a change or addition by which a thing is improved.
3. a person or thing that represents an advance on another in excellence or achievement:

   The new landlord is a great improvement over his greedy predecessor.

   Synonyms: advancement, betterment, refinement

4. a bringing into a more valuable or desirable condition, as of land or real property; betterment.

   Synonyms: enhancement, repair

5. something done or added to real property that increases its value.
6. profitable use, as of a period of time.

improvement

/ ɪmˈpruːvmənt /

noun

1. the act of improving or the state of being improved
2. something that improves, esp an addition or alteration
3. See conversion
   alteration of the structure, fixtures, fittings, or decor of a building without changing its function Compare conversion
4. usually plural a building or other works on a piece of land, adding to its value

Other Words From

• nonim·provement noun
• preim·provement noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of improvement¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English improuement, from Anglo-French emprouement “something profitable (especially exploitation of land)”; improve, -ment

Example Sentences

Most noticeable is the improvement Biden has seen with older voters.

From Washington Post

For starters, they’ve made vast improvements in their special teams play while in the bubble.

From FiveThirtyEight

Apple updated the high end of its tablet range back in March, but the mid-range iPad Air has gone 18 months without improvement.

From Fortune

In early 2020, Alipay even made an improvement to its in-app search algorithm so users can directly search for the name of a stock or finance product, instead of accessing them through the menu.

From Search Engine Watch

Thanks to these and other performance improvements, Microsoft says a trillion-parameter model could be scaled across as few as 800 Nvidia V100 GPUs.

From Singularity Hub 

“If Charleston harbor needs improvement, let the commerce of Charleston bear the burden,” he said.

From The Daily Beast

Never once was a box checked indicating that his work was unsatisfactory or needed improvement.

From The Daily Beast

Another said just the act of spending money on self-improvement made him determined to break out of his shell.

From The Daily Beast

Even though a fundamental improvement in relations soon is unlikely, it is right to test the North Koreans.

From The Daily Beast

And this constitutes a bit of an improvement over 10 or 20 years ago.

From The Daily Beast

Genoa has but recently and partially felt the new impulse, yet even here the march of improvement is visible.

From Project Gutenberg

The improvement of transport still further swelled the volume of production.

From Project Gutenberg

Goodness only knew what a falchion was, but there was the Griffin, and his history was an improvement upon the eternal Cat.

From Project Gutenberg

Perhaps our comic papers have never heard of the Improvement Clubs, or find nothing in them that is humorous.

From Project Gutenberg

The duke was agricultural above all things; he had a model estate bristling with scientific improvement.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• advance
• advancement
• change
• development
• enhancement
• gain
• growth
• increase
• progress
• recovery
• renovation
• revision
• rise
• upgrade