reinforcement

American  

[ree-in-fawrs-muhnt, -fohrs-] / ˌri ɪnˈfɔrs mənt, -ˈfoʊrs- /

noun

reinforcements plural

1. the act of reinforcing.

2. the state of being reinforced.

3. something that reinforces or strengthens.

4. Often reinforcements. an additional supply of personnel, ships, aircraft, etc., for a military force.

5. a system of steel bars, strands, wires, or mesh for absorbing the tensile and shearing stresses in concrete work.

6. Psychology.

   1. a procedure, as a reward or punishment, that alters a response to a stimulus.

   2. the act of reinforcing a response.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonreinforcement
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• reinforcements
  plural

Etymology

Origin of reinforcement

First recorded in 1600–10; reinforce + -ment

Explanation

Reinforcement is a way to learn and remember things, like a student who repeats the facts he has studied for a test over and over, or the ways we praise children when they share their toys or say "please" and "thank you" — reinforcement of the good manners we want them to use. You’ll often hear the word reinforcement used in relation to a building or other structure that gets additional mechanical support, but the word can be used in a broader sense as well. In addition to strengthening walls, reinforcement can refer to the strengthening or propping up of an argument or a particular point of view. For example, if you show up in class every day and ask questions, that adds reinforcement to the notion that you’re a diligent student.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

reinforcement reinforcements

“Customers are looking for AI infrastructure that is optimized for a wide range of workloads, from training and inference to data preparation, search, and reinforcement learning,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a release.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026

The robot in the simulation was given a task and repeatedly simulated it to identify the most promising solutions, an approach called reinforcement learning.

From BBC ● May 28, 2026

The striatum sits deep in the forebrain and plays a role in movement planning, decision-making, motivation, reinforcement, and how the brain responds to rewards.

From Science Daily ● May 10, 2026

The company, which released a reinforcement learning framework called Miles in November, said it plans to do more work in the model-training layer in the future.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026

Dean Nabokov's eye twitched with irritation, and she looked up at the Headmarvellers for reinforcement.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton

France has mobilised its military to help with the response and extra reinforcements from the army have been sent to help firefighters by clearing brush and creating fire breaks.

From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026

French President Emmanuel Macron said his country had sought reinforcements from across the continent to help fight the blaze, including Canadair aircraft from Croatia and Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

Work on the site has continued steadily for the past 15 months, including truck traffic, tunnel reinforcements and a new security perimeter, according to Albright’s institute, which examines nuclear and nonproliferation issues.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

Further reinforcements are needed, but Newcastle are set to complete their fourth signing of the summer.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

“You, see? Our reinforcements have arrived! Rome will fall today!”

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• aid