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. Compare competence ( def 6 ).

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

Other Words From

• misper·formance noun
• reper·formance noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of performance¹

First recorded in 1485–95; perform + -ance

Example Sentences

So if I was able to come in there and be treated so respectfully and so beautifully that I was able to give a great performance, that’s the win.

From Ozy

The account performance report should include data from all search queries, whereas the search query report now only includes data for search queries that made it past Google’s new filters.

From Search Engine Land

Thanks to that redesigned silicon, the device’s CPU performance beats out the previous iPad Air by 40% and its graphics speed is twice as fast.

From Fortune

The new iPad 8th Generation has a new A12 chip inside, which makes it 40 percent faster in terms of CPU and doubles the graphics performance.

From Popular-Science

To check your performance on user behavior metrics, use your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts.

From Search Engine Land

He throws every fiber of his being into each performance, altering his posture, elocution, temperament, and more.

From The Daily Beast

The hope was that greater transparency about performance would drive results.

From The Daily Beast

Tony Shalhoub, Act One Sometimes you realize the power of a performance only when it remains in your mind many months later.

From The Daily Beast

Having graduated Juilliard last spring, Alex Sharp is too young to have given the performance of a lifetime.

From The Daily Beast

Worse still is how much of this is being made into performance.

From The Daily Beast

When the days were fine, Jean in his basket assisted at the dramatic performance in the market-place.

From Project Gutenberg

Men's probable actions are calculated by the law of reason; but their performance is usually the result of caprice.

From Project Gutenberg

I thought we were in for an encore performance, but gradually the uproar died away, and by midnight all was quiet.

From Project Gutenberg

The promises of Bellamy and Planner were as far from fulfilment as ever; their performance as vigorous and disastrous as at first.

From Project Gutenberg

You may rest assured that I will spare no time or attention to promote the performance of this engine.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

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