practice

American  

[prak-tis] / ˈpræk tɪs /

British, practise

noun

• practices
  plural

1. habitual or customary performance; operation.

   office practice.

2. habit; custom.

   It is not the practice here for men to wear long hair.

3. repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency.

   Practice makes perfect.

   Synonyms:

   application

4. condition arrived at by experience or exercise.

   She refused to play the piano, because she was out of practice.

5. the action or process of performing or doing something.

   to put a scheme into practice;

   the shameful practices of a blackmailer.

6. the exercise or pursuit of a profession or occupation, especially law or medicine.

   She plans to set up practice in her hometown.

7. the business of a professional person.

   The doctor wanted his daughter to take over his practice when he retired.

8. Law. the established method of conducting legal proceedings.

9. Archaic. plotting; intrigue; trickery.

10. Archaic. Usually practices. intrigues; plots.

---

verb (used with object)

• practices,
  present (3rd person singular)
• practiced,
  past participle,  past
• practicing
  present participle

1. to perform or do habitually or usually.

   to practice a strict regimen.

2. to follow or observe habitually or customarily.

   to practice one's religion.

3. to exercise or pursue as a profession, art, or occupation.

   to practice law.

4. to perform or do repeatedly in order to acquire skill or proficiency.

   to practice the violin.

5. to train or drill (a person, animal, etc.) in something in order to give proficiency.

verb (used without object)

• practices,
  present (3rd person singular)
• practiced,
  past participle,  past
• practicing
  present participle

1. to do something habitually or as a practice.

2. to pursue a profession, especially law or medicine.

3. to exercise oneself by repeated performance in order to acquire skill.

   to practice at shooting.

4. Archaic. to plot or conspire.

practice British  

/ ˈpræktɪs /

noun

1. a usual or customary action or proceeding

   it was his practice to rise at six

   he made a practice of stealing stamps

2. repetition or exercise of an activity in order to achieve mastery and fluency

3. the condition of having mastery of a skill or activity through repetition (esp in the phrases in practice, out of practice )

4. the exercise of a profession

   he set up practice as a lawyer

5. the act of doing something

   he put his plans into practice

6. the established method of conducting proceedings in a court of law

---

verb

1. the US spelling of practise

practice Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing practice

• in practice
• make a practice of
• out of practice
• put into practice
• sharp practice

---

Usage

What’s the difference between practice and practise? In British English (and many other international varieties of English), the spelling practice is used when the word is a noun, while the spelling practise is used when it’s a verb. In American English, the spelling practice is always used, regardless of whether the word is used as a verb or a noun. This is somewhat similar to the difference in spelling between advice (noun) and advise (verb)—a distinction that’s used in both British and American English. However, unlike advice and advise, practice and practise are always pronounced the same. Here is an example of how practice and practise would be used in the same sentence in British English. Example: Remember, practice makes perfect—the more you practise, the better you will get. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between practice and practise.

Synonym Usage

See custom. See exercise.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• mispractice
  noun
• nonpractice
  noun
• practicer
  noun
• prepractice
  verb
• outpractice
  verb (used with object)
• overpractice
  verb (used with object)
• repractice
  verb (used with object)

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• practices
  plural

Participles

• practicing
  present
• practiced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• practice
  simple
• practices
  simple
• have practiced
  perfect
• has practiced
  perfect
• am practicing
  progressive
• are practicing
  progressive
• is practicing
  progressive
• have been practicing
  perfect progressive
• has been practicing
  perfect progressive

Past

• practiced
  simple
• had practiced
  perfect
• was practicing
  progressive
• were practicing
  progressive
• had been practicing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will practice
  simple
• will have practiced
  perfect
• will be practicing
  progressive
• will have been practicing
  perfect progressive

---

Etymology

Origin of practice

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English verb practisen, practizen, from Middle French pra(c)tiser, from Medieval Latin prāctizāre, alteration of prācticāre, derivative of prāctica “practical work,” from Greek prāktikḗ, noun use of feminine of prāktikós; noun derivative of the verb; see practic ( def. ), -ize ( def. )

---

Explanation

Practice can be a noun or a verb, but either way it's about how things are done on a regular basis. You can practice shotput every day because your town has a practice of supporting track-and-field events. One can practice the tuba for hours on end, repeating the same song over and over, serving to both get better at the tuba and to convince the neighbors they should move to Florida. You could learn the common practice of offering a guest a beverage when they arrive at your party, if you care to be polite. One can also practice a profession or a religion, as in “I practice Buddhism and I have a booming international law practice.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

practice practices practiced practicing

The practice is most common among younger, digital-native audiences, who each year become a larger and larger share of sports fans.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

Redick said Sexton has been able to practice more.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026

Women's health creators and charities have told us their content has been removed, had sensitivity filters added, or had its reach suppressed - a practice known as "shadowbanning".

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

An AIG spokesman said the insurer automatically adopts the standardized forms, which is a “common practice across the industry.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

He and Avery talked twice while she was waiting for tryouts to start, and one time when Aunt Jen was late to pick her up from practice, he taught her some skateboarding basics.

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

Stewart, 88, practices observation meditation twice a day to help him build a healthy relationship with his emotions — watching them, not letting them control him — to deal with the stress of fires.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026

For Netflix, that means looking outside of its once-unimpeachable red walls and embracing more reluctant partnerships with rivals, while cutting costs and overhauling old practices wherever possible.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

Perhaps one of the most crucial practices they adopted, was what they call “the rumble,” which helped change the workplace culture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

"These patterns suggest that while similar risk factors across ages are likely, some cancers may have age-specific exposures, susceptibilities, or differences in screening and detection practices," write the researchers.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026

This principle of ever-more-exact measurement derives from Tycho Brahe; in tightening up the relationship between evidence and theory in physics, Galileo was extrapolating from the practices of the astronomers.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

A large guan stoneware jar, from the Newark Museum of Art, is one of only a few examples of an experimental eighth- to ninth-century splashed-glaze technique practiced at the Duandian kilns.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

"I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials," she told Newsweek, without clarifying whether she held a US law license.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

This gave Friedman the opportunity to build a major economics department that practiced methods and pursued goals different from others.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

As the longevity physician Hillary Lin described it at a women’s health event, longevity medicine is “good medicine, practiced early.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

She had felt it in every rehearsal, in the quiet moments she practiced with Lena.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

But the 41-year-old acknowledged Thursday she had failed the bar exam, a prerequisite for practicing law in the United States.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

Some kids truly have the resources to explore any of their interests, and to continue practicing them.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

Even so, ITPs remained unpopular with practicing mathematicians.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

“Anytime I’m resting in rehearsals, he’s practicing… What you see on Tuesdays, that is his best…”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026

You can begin practicing harmonic analysis by practicing identifying whether a piece is in the major key or in its relative minor.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• form
• habit
• method
• proceeding
• process
• rule
• system
• tradition
• use

---