progress
Americannoun
-
progress
plural
-
a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage.
the progress of a student toward a degree.
- Synonyms:
- progression, advance
- Antonyms:
- regression
-
developmental activity in science, technology, etc., especially with reference to the commercial opportunities created thereby or to the promotion of the material well-being of the public through the goods, techniques, or facilities created.
-
advancement in general.
-
growth or development; continuous improvement.
He shows progress in his muscular coordination.
- Synonyms:
- betterment, increase
-
the development of an individual or society in a direction considered more beneficial than and superior to the previous level.
-
Biology. increasing differentiation and perfection in the course of ontogeny or phylogeny.
-
forward or onward movement.
the progress of the planets.
-
the forward course of action, events, time, etc.
-
an official journey or tour, as by a sovereign or dignitary.
verb (used without object)
-
progresses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
progressed,
past participle, past
-
progressing
present participle
-
to go forward or onward in space or time.
The wagon train progressed through the valley. As the play progressed, the leading man grew more inaudible.
-
to grow or develop, as in complexity, scope, or severity; advance.
Are you progressing in your piano studies? The disease progressed slowly.
- Antonyms:
- regress
idioms
noun
-
movement forwards, esp towards a place or objective
-
satisfactory development, growth, or advance
she is making progress in maths
-
advance towards completion, maturity, or perfection
the steady onward march of progress
-
(modifier) of or relating to progress
a progress report
-
biology increasing complexity, adaptation, etc, during the development of an individual or evolution of a group
-
a stately royal journey
-
taking place; under way
verb
-
(intr) to move forwards or onwards, as towards a place or objective
-
to move towards or bring nearer to completion, maturity, or perfection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
progresssimple
-
progressessimple
-
have progressedperfect
-
has progressedperfect
-
am progressingprogressive
-
are progressingprogressive
-
is progressingprogressive
-
have been progressingperfect progressive
-
has been progressingperfect progressive
Past
-
progressedsimple
-
had progressedperfect
-
was progressingprogressive
-
were progressingprogressive
-
had been progressingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of progress
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English progresse (noun), from Latin prōgressus “a going forward,” equivalent to prōgred-, stem of prōgredī “to advance” ( prō- “advancing, projecting forward” + -gredī, combining form of gradī “to step”; see pro- 1, grade) + -tus suffix of verb action
Explanation
The process of advancement and the way things move in the positive direction of improvement is called progress. If you got a B on your last test and a B+ on this one, that's progress. If you're moving toward a goal, you're making progress too. On a long trip, it feels like you're barely making progress, but every hour you've driven another 60 miles towards your destination. Or, the news reported recent progress in peace talks between the two feuding nations. Have you ever heard someone say that you can't stop progress? That means that things keep advancing and getting more complicated. Place the accent on the second syllable if you use it as a verb. Let's progress to the next stage.
Vocabulary lists containing progress
UCPS 6th Grade Roots List #1
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"The Fun They Had"
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Business, List 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"This first surgery is important progress for children with craniosynostosis and, so far, we have seen fantastic outcomes."
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
The students make progress toward nearing proficiency during elementary and middle school.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
"The 1851 memoir, by contrast, was a spiritual redemption story, with Byfield tracing his progress from rebellious sinner to devout and repentant Christian."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
Stock-market rallies in recent years helped to accelerate her progress, she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
Farther and farther he’d soar, making note of his progress.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
The agency said it would continue to monitor the activities at the site "as the excavation work progresses".
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
AI will create “durable tailwinds” for Palo Alto Networks as it progresses toward its $20 billion annual recurring revenue Next-Generation Security target for fiscal 2030, he added.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
Medical experts say travel is best for early-stage patients, warning that trips can become disorienting or risky as dementia progresses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Iraola has spoken about the need for more control while retaining the chaos that makes his team's attacks so effective, so he may decide to leave additional players behind the ball as the season progresses.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Similar to other sequenced learning approaches, such as Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development or scaffolding, Gordon’s approach relies on a gradual increase in skill level difficulty as the student progresses.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
The arrival of AGI, in his view, began last November with Anthropic’s Opus 4.5 and progressed with so-called tooling from Anthropic and other labs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
For that move to have progressed, United would have had to include an obligation to buy at a later date, but have instead chosen to bide their time for their first-choice targets.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
As mentioned last month, Hulu’s integration into Disney+ has progressed to a point where it’s more and more difficult to differentiate between the two standalone services.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
“But that’s how things have progressed, and the development of technology will always outpace the development of defenses against the undesirable effects of technology,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Treebaun progressed quickly through each student’s recap and repercussion track, and I watched a botched Kennedy assassination simulation, a Watergate mess, and a rather iffy situation involving Ben Franklin, but none of them were Elliot’s.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
However, those drugs alone did not permanently stop the cancer from progressing.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026
“We’re still progressing but beating Westlake was huge. We have the best coach, so I think we can make the top division. We’re going to give it our all.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
"White Nights" has emerged as a gateway book for Dostoevsky's work, with some young readers progressing onto more challenging novels, such as "Crime and Punishment."
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
Turnaround plans at its Brazilian open-pit gold mine, Mara Rosa, are progressing in line with expectations, the company said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
When they arrived in the corridor they saw that there were only a dozen people progressing to N.E.W.T. level.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
