praxis

American  

[prak-sis] / ˈpræk sɪs /

noun

praxises, plural praxes plural

1. practice, as distinguished from theory; application or use, as of knowledge or skills.

2. convention, habit, or custom.

3. a set of examples for practice.

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praxis British  

/ ˈpræksɪs /

noun

1. the practice and practical side of a profession or field of study, as opposed to the theory

2. a practical exercise

3. accepted practice or custom

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• praxes
  plural
• praxises
  plural

Etymology

Origin of praxis

First recorded in 1575–85; from Medieval Latin, from Greek prâxis “act, action, deed,” from prāk-, base of prā́ssein “to do, fare” + -sis -sis

Explanation

Use the noun praxis when you talk formally about putting an idea or theory into practice. You might have a lot of theories and opinions about raising kids, but it's much harder in praxis, when you have kids of your own. Praxis comes from the Greek word prattein, which means "to do." Aside from having the meaning of putting an idea into action, praxis also means "an established custom or practice." Your mom may have chosen a particular school for you because of its common praxis of parents helping out in the classroom.

Example Sentences

Their qualitative work on the severed mother-daughter dyad has yielded wholly nuanced theories and praxis rooted in the unique “self-in-relation” analysis model.

From Salon • May 11, 2024

She said that Jacob’s non-oral autism arises from “trouble with praxis, which means motor planning — how to get the body and the mouth to do what I want when I want.”

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 5, 2023

In this way “Madness” is akin to types of conceptual art that are more about praxis than precision.

From New York Times • Apr. 15, 2022

The praxis has always been and is still being developed by the marginalized and has of necessity to be nimbler than the scholarship, which all too often serves the powerful.

From Scientific American • Feb. 3, 2021

Once the experience of religion was identified as such, religious praxis adopted the same matrix.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai