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

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

While at OpenAI, Karpathy worked on deep learning for generative-AI models and deep reinforcement learning.

From MarketWatch • May 19, 2026

"This is real nanotechnology, as we can manipulate matter at the nanoscale. It is also a critical development for functional textiles, as the scrolls could be incorporated as reinforcement materials in synthetic fibers."

From Science Daily • Mar. 31, 2026

Participants vent, find reinforcement among like-minded people, and leave feeling heard and aligned.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026

Although we need reinforcement, the recruits give us almost more trouble than they are worth.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque

Related Words

• aid